07/31/97
By Nancy Kruh / The Dallas Morning News
Perhaps a support group should be started, or maybe even a 12-step program.
Howard Stern fans in the Dallas area have been trying just about everything else this week to cope with the silencing locally of their favorite talk-radio personality. On Monday, the irreverent morning show was dropped by "The Eagle" KEGL-FM (97.1).
The station had decided earlier this month not to renew the show. Then, with six weeks still left on the contract, KEGL abruptly chose to replace the show with rock music.
The sudden action sent Mr. Stern's hard-core fans into the throes of cold-turkey withdrawal.
"I'm completely lost; I'm devastated," says Tracie Hoard, a 26-year-old insurance claims analyst who lives in North Dallas. "I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but for five years, if I can't listen to him, I tape him."
Every weekday, Ms. Hoard has set her alarm for 6a.m., an hour earlier than she has to get up, just so she can loll and listen to Mr. Stern's first hour. On Tuesday, with the alarm still set for 6, all she could do was lie in bed and languidly listen to nothing.
Mr. Stern may be silent in the area, but his fans aren't. Ms. Hoard is among the hundreds who KEGL says have called the station to complain. She also is among those who have phoned "The Edge" KDGE-FM (94.5), which has opened a "Howard Stern Hotline" at (214) 787-1244. Fans have been invited to "voice their feelings," though the station has no plans to pick up the show.
Nor does any other Dallas-area station - a situation that has left fans hanging onto any shred of hope that, once again, they can hear the man they refer to simply as "Howard."
They've surfed the Net, searching for a rumored site that allows users to download the show. No luck. They've called electronics stores, looking for an antenna that can pick up the show from its nearest broadcaster, an FM station in Austin. No soap.
And so they've been having to rely on their own ingenuity. Several fans each morning have been making toll calls to the Austin station, KJFK, and asking to be put on hold so they can listen to Mr. Stern's show.
"We've got three lines where we let people get on," says senior producer Ty Rivers. "Most hang on for about 20 minutes."
Sharon Rubell, a 26-year-old accounting assistant in Fort Worth, has found some relief with show synopses posted on an Internet site, but - she sighs - it's just not the same. "I used to come in in the morning, and first thing I do is turn on my radio," she said. "Now, I have nothing to laugh about."
William Blanton, a 25-year-old college student in Dallas, is considering asking his grandmother in Waco to tape the show broadcast from Austin. He also wants other fans to contact him so he can "get some sort of group together [E-mail: wjb1@airmail.net]."
A protest is being organized by Melrose Larry Green, a Stern show regular. He is asking fans to join him outside the KEGL headquarters from 6 to 9a.m. on Aug. 15.
In the meantime, fans are left to flounder - futilely searching the radio airwaves for a replacement, trying the TV morning shows, or grimly taking the Howard-or-nothing stance.
Which, as it turns out, has its merits. Says Mr. Blanton: "I've actually been doing my homework instead."
© 1997 The Dallas Morning News
This article appeared in the Thursday, July 31, 1997, Dallas Morning News "Overnight" section.
Return to the Dallas ratings and other news stories.
Return to the Ratings page.
Return home.
This page © 1997 by The Complete Howard Stern Links!