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STERN: First day we are doing a revelation show. Each one of us. Each of the major cast members have agreed to reveal something about themselves that we've never revealed on the air and that has to be -- has to meet a certain standard.
KING: Which is?
STERN: Which is we put a guy in charge. We each had to go into a confessional booth and confess our sin or secret or something that humiliated us or embarrassed us. And if it didn't measure up, we had to go back and come up with something else.
KING: It had to be humiliating.
STERN: No, it doesn't have to be humiliating. It might be something that we didn't want to share. It could be a secret, it could be ...
KING: A disease. Might have a disease.
STERN: Could be a disease. Could be that dreaded disease that you have. I might get it too. You don't know.
But Larry -- so, this is dangerous radio for me. This is a high wire because I went into the confessional, I admitted what it is and the guy said, whoa. And that whoa is what I'm looking for. So we've got some good stuff.
I do have to address whether or not Beth and I got married. There is plenty on the table. We just left this huge radio experience. Probably the most successful radio show in the history of radio and walking away from that, I have to tell you that I had no emotional experience about it until the day after, when I woke up.
I woke up and I realized I'll never hit that button again and have that kind of access. Millions and millions and millions of fans.
KING: Now this is your first public appearance since then, since leaving.
STERN: Right.
KING: And you go on the new on Monday.
STERN: Right.
KING: Do you -- are you scared?
STERN: Well, I don't feel scared. Well, maybe a little bit because I don't want to disappoint people and I have to tell you, we've done two run-throughs this week and this is the great thing about having your own channel. All of the sudden, I said, when we're doing the run through, just pop on the run through.
So in essence we've been on twice already and whoever was driving in their car, all of the sudden we just popped on the radio and that's fun. And the run through was liberating.
I had the most amazing radio experience New Year's Eve and I'll tell you why satellite is great and why every broadcaster should be involved in this. New Year's Eve they said it's the first time your voice can be heard on your own channel. I was out of my contract with Viacom. Would you call in? I said, I don't know, if I'm up.
Went out, had a bunch of drinks, fell asleep, but at midnight I heard fireworks coming out of the park and it woke me up and I said, ah, what the hell? I'll just call in. I started talking stream of consciousness into this telephone receiver, kind of drunk, a little bit hung over, and I've never had that kind of freedom before.
I didn't use any foul language. It wasn't about that. I didn't have to worry about the constraints, what topics I could talk about. I didn't worry about the average quarter hour maintenance, crossing the quarter hour, how many listeners I had. Whoever was there, it was fine with me, and it was the most intimate radio I have ever done, just talking into that receiver.
KING: How did you become Howard stern? In other words, how did you develop this persona?
STERN: Well, you know, I have made no secret of the fact that I have always wanted to be on radio.
I can remember being 5 years old, and, you know, it goes back. My father was a recording engineer. I have told you this before. And my father used to look at Don Adams and Larry Storch and some of the great voice guys doing cartoons an commercials. And I would go down to my father's studio. Once in awhile, he would bring me.
And I would watch his eyes. And he would stare at these guys. And he would have such reference for the greats. You know, these guys were great. And I would watch these guys working. And I said, oh, my God. If my father looked at me like that, he would be so proud of me.
And I think, early on, when I saw that microphone, and I saw -- I remember to this day -- I was a kid. And Don Adams was recording "Tennessee Tuxedo," a commercial -- a cartoon. And he's standing there in a blazer and a turtleneck. And he looked so damn suave to me. You know, this was before Maxwell Smart.
KING: Yes.
STERN: And I just -- I saw my father looking at him. And I went, wow. I want to do something like this. And I didn't listen to a lot of radio growing up. I can only remember one guy, Brad Crandall, I used to listen to at night.
KING: Sure. Great voice.
STERN: Yes. He was this guy.
KING: But how did you carry it on to become what you have become, to take it to the fullest extent? In other words, you didn't draw any middle ground.
STERN: Well, it was a process.
I -- when I was in college radio, I did a show called the "King Schmaltz Bagel Hour." It was me and three guys. And it was very irreverent. And it has always been my fantasy to go on radio and not do a straight broadcast but to bring the audience into sort of my thought process.
I remember listening to the radio, and you would hear a guy close a door in the background at a news station or you would hear a cart or something drop on the floor. And you would go, what the hell is that? And they wouldn't tell you. They would act like it wasn't going on.
And I kind of had this fantasy where I would create a radio show where I would tell you everything, everything about me, everybody about -- whoever walked in, complete honesty. We strip away all barriers. And this was my -- my thing.
And I went in college radio. And I started this. And I got fired after the third show. We did a bit called "Godzilla Goes to Harlem." And no one ever heard anything like this. And it was a college station, carrier current. And we did this thing. And I got fired right on the air.
And that was sort of an omen of what was to come. And my father wrote me a letter. And he said to me, you know, it is great that you are on the air and all of that. But I listened to the tape. And you go, ah, ah, ah every minute. And you (INAUDIBLE) on the air. And you don't sound professional. And you're not enunciating.
And he said even a clown probably was a trained ballet dancer or something. And you need to go out and do a straight radio show and, in my opinion, learn how to, you know, do radio.
KING: Good advice.
STERN: It was really good advice.
And I went and I did a straight show for two years. And I was awful. It was chronicled in my movie. And I said, you know what, though? It was the best two years of my life. I had to do everything at that station. And I kept dreaming in my head of breaking sort of all the walls down, all of those straight walls down.
Someone asked me the other day, gee, did you ever think about doing like a "LARRY KING" show? They said, you're a very good interviewer. Interviewing is a strength of yours. And I said, that's a career that wasn't for me.
I wanted to expose myself and expose every -- so, I didn't want to have any secrets from the audience.
KING: I like the guests. You like you.
STERN: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: I mean, you want the show to be into you.
STERN: No, that's -- that's not it. That's not what I'm saying.
You know, the guy who replaced me in New York, David Lee Roth, I listened to his first show. And he said, hey, man, this ain't heavy lifting. This radio stuff is easy.
And I was thinking about that. And I thought, no, radio isn't easy. It's easy -- yes, sure, anyone can go on the air and talk. But to open yourself up and actually break down all the walls and think about all your insecurities, and put those on the air, I think it isn't easy lifting. There's a lot of emotional lifting you have to do.
But, having said that, when a guest comes in, I think the reason people might think I'm a good interviewer is that I'm genuinely curious about a person. I don't make judgments. If somebody's a stripper, that's great. If someone's a prostitute, I -- Robin, who works with me, she decided to work with me.
She heard a tape of me in Detroit. I was interviewing a prostitute. And she said to me, when I heard you do it, you asked her everything, what she ate for breakfast, why she went to the store, who were her parents, how did she get into this sort of miserable life.
And you didn't make judgments. And that's what the show's always been about. I myself don't really have outrageous behavior, I don't think. But I'm a voyeur.
(LAUGHTER)
STERN: I like to watch outrageous behavior and I like to learn about outrageous behavior.
KING: Boy, do you(End).
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