Unlike the music stations, Howard 100 and 101 (and, presumably, other talk stations) have human beings on the air as content. People have to go to the bathroom, and simply need to take a break every so often.
Joe
ETA : Am I the only person completely sick of Gilbert on Stern?
J
A five minute piss break is fine. But say Howard takes five at 10:03, he returns 10:08. No problem. But when they do a later replay, the piss break is at 2:03, they stick in more ads, and doesn’t return at 2:08, more like 2:15.
If the show starts at 6:00am prompt and runs til 10:30, that’s 4:30 length. Fine.
I expect replays to also be 4:30 in length; but other than the original West Coast feed, that isn’t true. They’re chock full of terrestrial radio length blocks of ads.
I’m so with you on that pronounciation! My name is Karen so I get the same kind of thing. Kair-en, my ass!
I find that the commercials have increased. It’s not like in the old days when I could drive all the way to work on a commercial break, but it could be better. On the other hand, some of their sponsors are a little fascinating, like the website that helps married people connect with people to cheat with. I haven’t heard the one for male genital deodorant lately. Nodoro, we hardly knew ye.
Yes, you are. My husband and I call each other to make sure the other knows Gilbert is on. They should have had more Dracula Gottfried during Dracula Gottfried meets the Wack Pack week.
They should have more Beetlejuice.
Less Eric the Midget.
PS, I’m worried about Wendy the Retard’s depression.
Gilbert can make me laugh so hard the tears flow.
The prank calls using his Gilbert Dice Gottfried voice destroys me.
He once did that routine on the original MTV Jon Stewart Show. It was great in that William Shatner was the other guest. Gilbert does his shtick. The only person laughing is Shatner - the ultraPC college crowd is appalled at Gilbert’s
homophobic jokes. I’d pay big bucks for a copy of that episode.
Gi gi gi gi gi oooh.
Howard did a brilliant interview with Carly Simon last week. It was the first time she and her son (who was there with her) had ever talked openly with each other about her non-relationship with his father, James Taylor. That’s the kind of fearless interviewer that Howard Stern is- they opened right up. It’s like he knows how to push, then pull back (usually with humor), push, then pull back- all to get more, more more- brilliant.
I think Sal & Richard have done some awesome phoney phone calls since they’ve been on Sirius- and they’re not all dirty. One of my favorites is when Richard calls people about garage sale items and then uses either background noise or reverb to completely confuse and exasperate them. Sal also does a great thing where he calls a pizza shop and orders a supreme pie and one by one removes all the items until the guy says, “So you want a plain cheese pie” and he says, “Oh no, please remove the cheese and the sauce and the dough” -GOD it slays me!
I’ve listened religiously to the show and the wrap-up show and the repeats since they got on Sirius, and then for about 6 years before that.
And let me tell you, sports fans, I don’t even like sports but I listen to Scott Ferrall on 101 every evening. He is one big-mouthed, bad-assed, crude, all-knowing, no-fear, enthusiastic-bordering-on-spastic sports fanatic. I just love to listen to him go off about whatever’s on his mind. But that’s another appreciation thread…
HEY NOW!!!
The best was when they called a woman with three different items for sale, and had their voices split somehow, and she’d ask what they were interested in, all three would simultaneously say a different item.
Joe
Gilbert is the #1 guest of all time, IMO. Just too funny.
The best prank call moment was last summer when Howard was playing all the “interrupting” calls and invited Sal in to discuss them, and then kept interrupting him.
The recent call about the scooter also slayed me. My wife even laughed at that one and she usually doesn’t like the prank calls.
OBAMA!
Since we have a bunch of afficianados here, can any of you identify two sound bites from the show:
One is the sound of a guy falling, sounds like he’s going down a flight of stairs.
They play it whenever the conversation mentions someone being clumsy.
Second one is a guy raving “SHUT UP SHUT UUUUUP” (not Ben Stern, but someone else really raving, possibly smacking someone at the same time).
I assume these are movie clips. Thanks.
“Obama is a long-legged mack daddy!”
Can you elaborate on that one? I have one in mind that you might be thinking of but it’s not a guy falling down stairs.
I’m pretty sure that is Ben Stern, if it’s the one I’m thinking about. There’s the “sit down, SHUT UP!” and I think another shut up one from the day he took Howard and his sister to work.
I swear this is from some Jack Nicholson movie. Sounds just like him. This one is definitely not Ben…
Ok, I know which one you’re talking about now, because I vaguely had Jack Nicholson in mind too but all I could think of were the clips of Howard’s dad. I don’t know what movie it’s from, though.
Pretty sure the first one is from Monty Python and the second one is from ‘Mars Attacks’ (where Jack Nicholson plays the president).
And I just watched this movie again recently; I must have snoozed through Jack saying SHUT UP. To whom does he say Shut up?
The falling one doesn’t sound like Python to me; I’m kind of a nut about that show and it doesn’t sound familiar.
I know exactly which effects you’re speaking of, but I can’t identify either. I’d bet that Fred couldn’t even tell you where the “clumsy” effect comes from - it sounds like a generic “guy falling down stairs” effect. The second doesn’t sound like Nicholson to me, but I’m not sure who it is…
Joe
The Monty Python one is just a guess and I’m probably totally wrong. 
But the Mars Attacks one is the President (Jack Nicholson) talking to the General (Rod Steiger) and can be heard here:
On another note, today’s Eric the Midget call had me laughing harder that any of his calls ever have. 
BwanaBob will have to confirm, but I do think [Artie]we haaave a winnnah[/Artie]