WCCO-TV Urged to Drop Vulgar 'Shock Jock' Howard Stern

WCCO-TV should cancel its plans to air the new Howard Stern Show, says Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council. In a letter to Jan McDaniel, general manager of WCCO-TV, Prichard declared, "Minnesota needs Howard Stern like a fish needs an oil spill."

As one of the CBS affiliates owned and operated by the network, WCCO will be one of 12 stations airing Stern’s new program, starting Aug. 22. The vulgar "shock jock" will compete directly with NBC’s "Saturday Night Live."

Stern’s syndicated radio program is heard in nearly 50 radio markets, including the Twin Cities. A television version of his radio show is seen on the Disney-controlled E! cable network. Stern is known for conducting lewd interviews, fondling naked women on the air, declaring himself to be God, and scatological humor.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a popular radio talk show host, recently reported that she tore up her contract with CBS when learning of Stern’s hiring.

Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, called the decision by CBS "a slap in the face of the large majority of Americans who are already fed up with the glut of vulgar sex talk, cursing, profanity and incivility on broadcast TV."

Peters said CBS had begun to position itself as a "family alternative," but has abandoned that image with this latest move. "There is a much larger potential audience for good TV than for shock and depravity, but producing good TV requires talent and a moral vision," said Peters. "Instead of doing that, the ‘Tiffany Network’s’ present owner, Westinghouse, named Mel Karmazin to head operations — the man who built a radio empire by befouling the nation’s airwaves with Howard Stern’s shock, vulgarity, prurience, mean-spiritedness and bigotry."

The Rev. Don Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, said that although he has watched radio and television programming degenerate over 20 years, Howard Stern’s deal with CBS represents an all-time low. "CBS has once again failed to serve the public interest," Wildmon concluded.

Prichard said, "WCCO-TV doesn’t need to give Stern a platform to pump this sort of material into thousands of Minnesota living rooms. Rather than contributing to the degradation of women, WCCO-TV needs to be giving women the respect they deserve. Stern has rationalized the mistreatment and degradation of women merely to grandstand and line his pockets with more money. If WCCO-TV goes ahead with plans to air Stern’s show, it will need to stop promoting itself as the ‘hometown team’ and give up any idea of being seen as family friendly."

Minnesota Family Council / Minnesota Family Institute
2855 Anthony Lane South, Minneapolis MN, 55418-3265
phone 612.789.8811, fax 612.789.8858, www.mfc.org