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Morning radio broadcasters simply didn't have conversations with their colleagues on-air when Howard Stern first started. It's one of the things he revolutionized as he transcended to the top of his craft. Fans of The Howard Stern Show are well-aware that his gaggle of well-paid staffers are almost all featured on the show. Their personal lives are up for criticism, ridicule, and general diagnosis, as his Howard's. But that entire format started with Robin Quivers.
Howard Stern and Robin Quivers are so close that some people wonder if they are in love with each other. The truth is, they have co-hosted their iconic radio show for over four decades and built an incredible partnership and deep friendship. Here's how they first met, the real reason Robin joined the show, and how they changed radio forever...
The Real Reason Robin Quivers Joined The Howard Stern Show
During an appearance on The Howard Stern Summer School show on July 14th, 2022, Robin went into detail about how she first formed her relationship with the radio legend.
"Robin, let's go back to the beginning," Howard Stern Summer School co-host Rahsaan Rogers started. "You and Howard have been together for 40 plus years. An amazing career together. Can you talk about what it was like when you guys first connected?"
Rahsaan continued to lead Robin into the story by explaining that there was a program director who suggested that Howard and Robin connect. At the time, Howard was looking for someone to do the news on his show, and Robin was looking for a show to do the news on. But she was very particular about which show she was going to be on.
"The first conversation [with Howard] was on the phone," Robin said. "I didn't want the job because I notoriously hated morning men. They were the worst. The scum of the earth. I was just like, 'These guys with their attitudes and their ridiculousness.' They're walking around and they don't want anyone to look at them, no one can speak to them, all of this crap. I was like, "I'm not working under those conditions.'"
But the program director kept pitching Howard to her and finally she played Robin a tape of what he was doing on the radio. After she heard it, Robin was convinced that she needed to meet this guy as he was something that she had never heard before. She claimed that it was "mind-blowing" to hear someone doing what he was doing, which, at the time, was utterly revolutionary.
Robin, who described herself as "a student of radio" at that point in her career, felt she could learn something from Howard.... even though, he himself was quite new.
"It was really just an opportunity or me to learn from somebody great, " Robin admitted before claiming that she wasn't looking for the fame and fortune and partnership that her relationship with Howard has since provided her.
The Start Of Howard Stern And Robin Quiver's Relationship
The first time Robin and Howard met was at a dinner before they started on the radio together the next morning. Robin told Stern Show Summer School co-hosts Rahsaan and longtime producer Gary "Ba Ba Booey" Dell'Abate that she thought Howard was going to talk her ear off. But she was surprised that the person she heard on the radio was nothing like the man he was having dinner with. He was quiet and reserved and that meant that she had to be "the entertainment" that evening.
This evening provided the foundation of Howard and Robin's relationship. But it was the next morning that really cemented the dynamic between them.
"This all started because my studio wasn't finished," Robin stated, referring to the separate studio that news anchors tend to sit in when they are on a show. Instead, she had to sit in a room with Howard himself. And he wanted to talk. "All I planned to do was watch him and do the news twice an hour and that was it. I walk in, I'm sitting down, going through my copy and he's on the air and he turns around and starts talking to me."
Initially, Robin thought Howard was crazy: "In my mind, there was a difference between the news person and the entertainment."
And he thought he was turning out to be the type of person she was trying to avoid in morning broadcasting. But this was far from the truth.
When Robin ended up getting her own studio, Howard begged her to turn on the microphone so that she could chime in and talk to him whenever she wanted.
"[Howard] really wanted somebody to be a part of it," Robin said.
Not only did this set up Howard and Robin's close relationship and the entire format of his show in terms of the staff, but it also paved the way for basically every other radio host and podcaster to do the same. It was truly revolutionary.