Even though there is no doubt that many listeners love their local radio hosts, very few of the people who make their living in that industry have gone on to become major celebrities. Then you have Howard Stern, a radio host whose unique skills have allowed him to become such a huge deal that at times he has truly deserved his “King of All Media” nickname.

Never one to hide from his own shortcomings, throughout Stern’s career he has often been surprisingly frank about the mistakes he’s made. Of course, that doesn’t mean that he wants to dwell on his missteps year after year so many of them have been forgotten by most. With that in mind, it is time to get to this list of 15 not-so-sweet facts about Howard Stern.

15 Rivalry Gone Too Far?

Given that there are only so many people listening to the radio at any given time, it makes sense that when one show takes off in the ratings it means another one is declining. Understandably, this has resulted in some radio rivalries over the years. However, when Stern unseated John DeBella in the ratings after his rival had been number one for years he took things too far by having a mock funeral in Rittenhouse Square.

14 Backing Out

For the most part, when Howard Stern sets his mind to something he sticks with it. However, in 1994 Howard didn’t follow through on running for governor on a platform of removing highway tolls and limiting roadwork to overnight hours among other things. Opting out of that fight was understandable but Stern claimed he wanted to help everyone else before he dropped out because he didn’t want to reveal his financial records and address.

13 Departure Explained

When Howard Stern decided to abandon terrestrial radio for Sirius Satellite in 2004, it was seen as a huge win for his new bosses. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Stern left regular radio behind largely because he incurred another $500,000 fine from FCC just before that. Fined due to an extremely raunchy conversation about Paris Hilton’s intimate life, the show also featured one of Stern’s callers using the N-word.

Related: 16 Little Known Facts About Howard Stern's Daughters

12 Gabourey Sidibe Comments

After the release of Precious in 2009, most viewers were incredibly impressed with the film’s entire cast including the movie’s main star Gabourey Sidibe. Of course, Howard Stern often has a different perspective on things and in this case, he only seemed to care about Sidibe’s size. After all, he said Sidibe is “the most enormous, fat black chick I’ve ever seen” before commenting that she will never work as an actor again.

11 Wendy Williams Feud

Given the fact that Howard Stern and Wendy Williams are both radio hosts that at times seem to love feuding with other stars, it isn’t too surprising that at one time they had a war of words. However, it was pretty outrageous that Howard delved so low as to call Wendy a “fly” after saying she didn't have his “wit” or his “talent”.

10 Airing An Apology

As we all know, it can be incredibly painful when a significant other ends your relationship when you still care for them. For that reason, in 1998 Stern’s longtime producer Gary Dell'Abate recorded an embarrassing apology in which he begged his ex-girlfriend to take him back. Merciless as always at that time, Stern played the apology for his millions of listeners and they all took glee in Gary’s pain.

9 Aunt Jemima Comment

During the ‘90s, Howard Stern deserved to be called a “shock jock” as he seemingly delighted in saying outrageous things sometimes for the sake of it. For example, in 1992 Howard got slapped with a $600,000 fine when he said that pleasuring himself to an image of Aunt Jemima was “the closest (he’d come) to making love to a black woman”.

Related: 15 Surprising Things We Just Learned About Howard Stern’s Radio Show

8 Easily Upset

Given the fact that Stern seemingly expects celebrities to have a sense of humor about themselves, you’d think that he would take it in stride when things don’t go his way. However, in reality, if a star doesn’t play along with his games Stern can lash out like an upset child. For example, Rachel Hunter once left his show after realizing she was expected to be on camera. Clearly upset, Stern went on to call her the c-word, he claimed her only accomplishment was being intimate with Rod Stewart, and said “she’s too fat to model”.

7 Battle Of The Wits

Over the years, Howard Stern created a group he called the Wack Pack. Made up of people with unusual traits, Stern often mocked the members of his group after they became a staple of his show. In fact, in 1994 Stern delighted in throwing the “Battle of Wits”, a trivia game in which he asked two members with mental disabilities insulting questions like how to spell red.

6 Treatment Of Some Female Guests

When some women go on The Howard Stern Show, it is very clear that they are there because of their looks and they fully expect them to be the focus of the conversation. However, when someone like Spice Girl Emma Bunton goes on the show she should be treated like any male celebrity would. Unfortunately, when Bunton was interviewed by Stern in 2005 the then 51-year-old host asked her is she was “wearing panties” and if she went braless that day for him.

5 N-Word Usage

During a recent appearance on The View, Howard Stern seemed to be taken aback when Sunny Hostin brought up the fact that he used to say the N-word a lot on his show. However, the truth of the matter is that during more than one segment from the ‘90s he said the word many times. Worse yet, when a caller asked Stern how he gets away with saying the word so much, he said “like this” and then called him the n-word.

Related: 15 Surprising Ways Howard Stern Maintains His Reported $650 Million Net Worth

4 Homophobic Writing

Over the last couple of decades, Howard Stern seems to have changed his mind an awful lot. That is a great thing as he held some pretty bad views during the ‘90s. For example, in his 1995 book Miss America, Stern wrote “‘Homosexuality seems to be a way for men in our society to avoid the responsibilities of being an adult male. It’s not genetic. It’s all psychosomatic”.

3 Mocking A Legend’s Passing

As a radio host, Howard Stern has proven that when he wants to he can help his listeners cope with tragedies. However, when the beloved singing star Selena passed away in 1995, his conduct was deplorable. Opting to play Selena’s music with gunshot sounds added in, he also spoke with a fake Hispanic accent.

2 The Next Day

Even though flying in airplanes tends to be very safe, when things go wrong the results are devastating, to say the least. For example, in 1982 a plane that took off from the Washington National Airport crashed into the 14th Street Bridge which resulted in the deaths of 74 people. The very next day on his show Stern called an airline and asked for a “one-way ticket from the National Airport to the 14th Street Bridge”.

1 Terrible Take

In the aftermath of the 1999 attack on Columbine High School, much of the world was left reeling from the loss of so many innocent young people. Unlike almost everyone else, when Howard Stern watched news footage of the event he focused on how attractive he deemed some of the fleeing high school students to be. After all, not only did he take to his radio show to comment about their looks but he also questioned why the attackers didn’t force themselves on their attractive female victims. Truly appalling.

Sources: abcnews, EW, wonderwall, nydailynews, TMZ, huffpost, monsterchildren

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