ABSTRACT
Howard Stern became an American phenomenon when the Federal Communications Commission targeted his shock jock radio format with a series of indecency fines beginning in 1987. During the 1980s Stern rose to the top of the ratings wars in the nation’s largest radio markets, and his success led to a proliferation of imitators. Stern, a communication graduate of Boston University, began his career as a conventional radio deejay in 1976. Radio personality Howard Stern has become the lightning rod in media coverage of the indecency issue. The social criticism of radio personalities such as Howard Stern, and the move to clean up the airwaves, might best be seen in Chicago, where a local newspaper called Stern radio’s “bad boy” and “the industry’s most talked-about air personality”.
