For many years, Howard Stern has been fighting the FCC and its radio regulations. Up until 2005, Howard Stern was the voice of 97.1 WKRK, a CBS owned radio station located in Detroit. During his time as a DJ at WKRK, Stern has done nothing but battle with the Federal Communications Commission, receiving fines and penalties many times.
In April of 2004, Stern was slapped with the biggest fines in his history as a radio DJ. On April 8, the FCC ruled that Howard Stern’s Show, which is featured on nearly thirty-five stations nationwide, contained sexually explicit and graphic content unsuitable for radio broadcast. Eighteen of the thrity-five stations that carry Stern’s show were cited for this infraction of FCC regulation, all of which were fined the maximum amount of $27, 500. Even worse, all eighteen of the fined stations are owned by a company named Clear Channel. Since all eighteen fines were cited to Clear Channel, they received a total penalty of $495,000. When news and media reporters asked Stern about his feelings towards the issue, he responded stating that, “’[i]t is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S.,’” (Unknown). Within the transcript of the day in question’s spoken content, Stern, along with the other guests on the show spoke using a myriad of expletives. However, the question remains about wether or not it right for a governmental agency to decide wther the content is appropriate for the public.
Since this incident, and many incidents like this, Stern has moved on to a new show featured on the Sirius XM Satellite radio. On his new show, Stern is more free to express his feelings in the manner he wants, due to the inability for the FCC to regulate satellite radio transmissions.
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