Stern Uncensored, Except by Himself

Mon., Jan. 9, 2006 12:30 PM PST by Joal Ryan

Mr. Sulu, a Playboy bunny, some passing of gas.

The new Howard Stern radio show was the same carnival as the old Howard Stern radio show, albeit a few shades bluer, per reports.

"Satellite means we can do what we want with no limits," Stern said in his debut Monday on subscriber-only Sirius Satellite Radio, per a San Jose Mercury News blog. "We can push through the boundaries, limited only by our imagination. It isn't just about the F-word."

And, yes, by all accounts, Stern really did censor himself and say "the F-word," as opposed to simply saying the F-word.

Not that the talk host's cast followed their boss' restrained lead.

"Everybody else there took it like recess--'Woo-hoo!' " MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said on ESPN Radio.

Still, Stern remained committed to the idea, in principle, that salty sailor talk would not dominate. When crony Ralph Cirella dropped the F-bomb, Stern berated him, the Mercury News said.

"Stern himself swore offhandedly soon afterwards," the blog noted.

That Stern now has to answer only to himself and not the obscenity-judging Federal Communications Commission was best illustrated by his show's new call-in number: 1-888-9-ASSHOLE.

"Asshole is not a curse word to me," Stern said, according to Radio & Records. "It's a great word for us because for years on regular radio, I wanted to call people an asshole."

Stern exited "regular" radio on Dec. 16, more than a year after signing a five-year, $500 million contract with Sirius. Last week, he was rewarded with another $200 million-plus in stock for helping boost Sirius' subscriber ranks to 3.3 million. Stern estimated his former audience on broadcast radio was five times as large.

"It hit me," Stern said Monday, per Radio & Records. "I'll never plunk down the button again and hit 15-20 million people."

Not that satellite radio doesn't have its perks for Stern. Monday's sign on ("The revolution has begun") was provided by the regal voice of Star Trek icon George (Mr. Sulu) Takei, who was introduced as the show's new announcer. Takei typically will pre-tape his segments, and not appear live in studio has he did on launch day, the Associated Press said.

Other show highlights included: Stern announcing that he'd wed longtime girlfriend Beth Ostrosky; Stern revealing that he was only kidding about getting married; Playboy bunny Heidi Cortez, host of the new Stern Sirius show Tissue Time with Heidi, offering up phone sex; and "a butt trumpet pumping out the sounds of farting," in the words of Radio & Records, to the classical theme from 2001.

In one bit that Stern never could have aired on his old show, listeners heard, per USA Today, the raw, uncensored Pat O'Brien voice-mail messages widely disseminated on the Web last year. In them, The Insider host is heard wooing, to put it delicately, a lady friend.

While Monday's five-hour show aired commercial free, leaving its host with precious little time for bathroom breaks, Mediaweek said subsequent installments will air six minutes of ads every 60 minutes. Advertisers include Vermont Teddy Bear and Heineken, the trade magazine said.