Howard Stern

CBS may be riding high on its third consecutive season as the most-watched network and enjoying a summer of success, but its executives have a cloud hanging over their heads: more than a half-million dollars' worth of fallout from Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash. Earlier this month, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell proposed fining each of the 19 TV stations directly owned and operated by CBS $27,500 for airing the two-second breast-baring incident. On Sunday, addressing a gathering of television critics in California, Leslie Moonves, co-president of Viacom Inc. who oversees CBS, said he is leaning toward fighting the FCC in court if the network's local stations are fined.

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.

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.)

Now it can be told: Appearing on David Letterman's show turned out to be a pre-season warmup for Ravens defensive tackle Tony Siragusa. WMAR has reached a deal to broadcast the larger-than-most-life-forms player's radio show on TV this fall late Saturday nights. The show, a lively - sometimes bawdy - sports talk show - was described by station executives as a coup allowing them to trade on the success of the Ravens and the popularity of the player widely known as "Goose." "Everybody knows that Goose is one of the hottest football properties out there," said Drew Berry, general manager for WMAR (Channel 2)

A year ago, Tracy Whitehead was planning how to leave her abusive relationship with Joseph Palczynski, a decision that triggered her abduction, the deaths of four bystanders and the terrorizing of her family. Yesterday she was contemplating how to spend the money she won after "shock jock" Howard Stern was moved by her horrifying story. Stern flew the Baltimore County woman to Las Vegas as the winner of a hard luck contest he advertised on radio. And on Sunday night, in a Stern-arranged bet, Whitehead won $100,000 in one hand at blackjack.

OVER THE past year, I've learned three new things abou Howard Stern: He's possibly the tallest Jew in the world; he carries a gun; and, as a cultural phenomenon, he is very much over.For this last, most pertinent, fact, he has the Office of the Independent Counsel to thank.Mr. Stern's new TV program, "The Howard Stern Radio Show," which appears Saturday nights on an ever-shrinking number of CBS-owned and affiliated stations, is a nonstarter.The show's problems go deeper than bad writing or crappy production values.

This columnist thinks the return of the black bear to the western Maryland woods is a neat thing, a sign of environmental resurgence (TJI, June 8). But I have to tell you: Some readers disagree. They say the black bears have no fear of humans and humans need to do something about it.Humans need to shoot some bears!One reader, particularly adamant about this, thinks bears will continue to be a nuisance until we have "a limited hunting season to put a little fear in the bears."Now wait just a Davy Crockett minute.

The judge ruled that the president was only boorish and offensive. Which, thank God, is still legal in America or Howard Stern wouldn't be getting a TV show.Ms. Jones claimed in her lawsuit that her career did not advance. But, hey, Vernon can't get everyone a job at Revlon.The judge said that not only was Ms. Jones' career not adversely affected, but she is driving a Mercedes and has several hundred thousand in the bank, despite being married to an unemployed actor.Pub Date: 4/09/98

The massive Howard Stern media blitz is over, leaving in its wake remnant thoughts about what New Yorker writer David Remnick cleverly calls "over-the-counter counterculture," or the mainstreaming of edginess. Does a pop phenomenon -- Howard Stern, alternative rock, Courtney Love, the nodding-out-on-heroin look, "independent" movie-making -- remain edgy once it has been mass-packaged and presold? And if a healthy, lip-jobbed Courtney Love is making Oscar presentations, and Howard Stern has topped the box-office list, who will become the new rebels?

I DON'T PLAN TO APPLY for a Howard Stern license plate from the Motor Vehicle Administration. But the hype surrounding the shock-jock and his new movie, ''Private Parts,'' afforded me an unsettling appreciation of the emotions felt by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Maryland.The Sons were scorned after someone realized they were driving around with special license plates bearing the Confederate flag. African-American legislators and others were offended by state-sanctioned use of a banner under which slavery was defended.