Howard Stern

The line of people waiting to see Robin Quivers on a sunny Saturday afternoon, almost 1,000 people strong, is one long visual introduction to the demographics of "The Howard Stern Show." Want to know who listens to the world's most famous shock jock? Here they are, mostly young, mostly white, men and women who love the self-appointed King of All Media and, by extension, his queen. They made his radio show No. 1, his book No. 1, and put Quivers' new book on best-seller lists the week it was released.

The search for America's next greatest talent continues in New York.  First up is The Flyte Cru, who I guess you could call basketball stunts-men. They use trampolines to do all sorts of somersaults as they shoot hoops. Their act is pretty entertaining, but I feel like I've seen it before, so I'm not very impressed. Judge Howie Mandel thinks the same thing and gives them a “no.” New judge Howard Stern has been surprisingly kind this season; he continues that streak and says he wants to see Flyte Cru move on to next round.

Howard Stern's movie, "Private Parts," opens in theaters today, not that you'd know it from watching TV tonight."Dave's World" (8 p.m.-8: 30 p.m. and 8: 30 p.m.-9 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Harry Anderson is so much better than this series lets him be; I almost wish he'd stick to specials, talk-show appearances and guest shots. Here are two shows that prove my point, both repeats from October. First, Dave gets himself in front of a judge who hates celebrities. Then he takes a Cuban refugee into his home and teaches him about being an American.

7:29 a.m. In the airwaves southwest of Frederick, near the quiet Potomac River community of Brunswick, population 5,000, the only voice coming over the car radio at 1520 on the AM dial is the strident sneer of shock-jock announcer Howard Stern. Thanks to the magic of electromagnetism, his bilious attitude has filtered all the way down through the ether from WKBW in Buffalo, N.Y. Somewhere, the great radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi is spinning in his grave.7:30 a.m. A piercing signal emanates from the radio, followed by the crisp tones of banjo music.

"America's Got Talent" is three weeks into their nationwide search for the next million dollar act and the show has decided to hit up St. Louis. A puppeteer named Tom Bonham is first up. His act is underwhelming to say the least. He really just moves some puppets around on a table. It almost seems like new judge Howard Stern is going to give him a “yes” because he feels sorry for him. “He's been working his whole life,” says Howard. But he gives him a “no” along with Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel, and Tom does not make it to the next round in Las Vegas.

Think about John Melendez, future announcer of The Tonight Show, and a couple of inconsistencies come to mind. First one: stuttering. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the word has been appended to his name - as in "Stuttering John" - for the 16 years he's served as a "reporter" for The Howard Stern Show. Stuttering is not normally considered a qualification for a career in mainstream broadcasting. Second one: A propensity for asking off-color questions on air. Celebrity responses have included hitting him with chairs (Morton Downey Jr.)

Howard Stern, who has been vowing to quit broadcasting in the face of regulatory and business pressure, took a more combative stance yesterday by announcing his return to the air in four of the six markets where the high-rated shock jock had been removed by radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications. Stern's employer, Infinity Broadcasting Corp., shuffled programming at its San Diego, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Fla., and Rochester, N.Y., stations to make way for Stern's libido-charged morning show.

If your image of shock radio is merely a steady stream of sexual and scatological references and dirty words, think again.At least in the case of the Howard Stern show, there's more to it than that.To be sure, there's plenty of the above on Mr. Stern's 6 a.m.-to-11 a.m. show -- enough so that last year the Federal Communications Commission levied a $6,000 fine against the company that broadcasts it, charging a 1988 Christmas program violated decency standards. The fine is currently under administrative appeal.

I'm probably taking this show a little too seriously over here, but some presentation as to how the 24 acts are divided up into two groups would be nice, because the second week of the semi-finals is full of acts that could never compete with the ones from the first week. Brian Dittelman lost, even though that mind-reading nerd could whoop the majority of this week's semi-finalists. Makes no sense at all.  Onto week two's far more miserable group of semi-finalists. Recurring themes this week were big time acts going small, Avicii's dance hit "Le7els," and as always, Howard imparting wisdom no one asked him to impart.

A CASE of life imitating art? Or was it?In the 1991 film, "The Fisher King," actor Jeff Bridges plays an egotistical, abrasive "shock jock" on a New York "talk radio" station. On the air, he mindlessly tells one of his nerdy callers that yuppies deserve to die. The listener totes off to a yuppie bar and guns down several patrons.Recently, Howard Stern, the egotistical, abrasive "shock jock," whose show is syndicated from New York to Baltimore, Philadelphia and several other markets, found himself having to ponder the freakish death of a woman he had involved in his radio gags.