The Revolution Begins!

At long last! He is free! Notwithstanding the monthly $12.95 fee. But he is well worth it. In fact, as I write these words, I am hearing the live east coast feed of his press conference from inside his Sirius Satellite studio. I am of course talking about the one and only Howard Stern. Today is January 9, 2006 and it is the inaugural launch of his uncensored, commercial free incarnation of "The Howard Stern Show." It is emblemized by a raised fist in protest to the assault on free speech headed by the FCC.

The battle has been raging on for many years: the FCC vs. Howard Stern. However, it was immediate days following the ridiculously dubbed "Nipplegate" that the war between the government and Howard rose to the point where Howard made the bold move to the budding pay radio service named Sirius. Since Howard signed his groundbreaking contract with Sirius in early 2005, Sirius subscriptions have risen from a mere 600,000, which put Sirius far behind the earlier pay service XM Satellite, to 3.3 million subscriptions announced just last week! As Howard said this morning, there were so many calls to Sirius to activate subscriptions to newly bought receivers over the 2005 holiday season the company there was a 9 hour hold period!

Howard became the reluctant face for the defense of free speech on broadcast radio because he is one of the few true living pop culture icons who is known not only in America but all across the world. He is and has been for more than 20 years an institution. Although once reluctant and has not said as much in his own words, it's clear to me that he has accepted the mantle of public free speech advocate in the wake of the fervor of his move to satellite radio. Like all great free thinking revolutionaries, such as Martin Luther and Lenny Bruce, it was never Howard's intention to become a symbol for free speech. Although he has always been public about his anti-establishment viewpoints, he is actually more conservative politically than liberal...or was prior to the illegal war in Iraq. He has become a vocal advocate against the Bush Administration's overseas activities as well as the administration's assault on personal and social freedoms. There is no doubt that it was his verbal assaults on Bush and his neo-con lackeys that made him the favored target of the FCC, who was able to use its poorly defined rules for "decency" to chase Howard from terrestrial to extra-terrestrial radio.

I have not been for many years a fan of Howard or his show. In particular it was his largely Republican and conservative viewpoints that prevented me from enjoying fully his entertainment content. I always thought of his entertainment as brilliant, but I couldn't get past his views. However, my girlfriend Laura turned me onto him just a few months before the Iraq invasion and I haven't been able to turn away since. And I am also the luckiest god damn boyfriend in the world because Laura got me a Sirius Starmate receiver for Christmas and we activated the subscription a week ago. But it wasn't the change in his viewpoint or even the fact that I have a free-thinking girlfriend who is threatened by Howard's content that has made me a fan for life. It is that Howard is the most honest radio personality ever.

I don't know when exactly I realized it is not Howard's political and social views or even the controversial content of his show that make him a threat to the establishment, all I know is that it is Howard's openly talking about his own ego, his own mind and his own eccentricities that have drawn him the largest following in the history of entertainment. Through Howard's unleashing his ego and personality, millions of fans connect with those aspects of their own psyches that our conservative and repressive American society will not encourage and actively seek to destroy. He has become the alter-ego of his fans. Like the comic book superheroes of which Howard is a fan, he achieves heights and heroics that the ordinary Americans who listen to him can't or won't do themselves. Howard Stern has become a modern American archetype.

The prediction has been made that the FCC will begin assaulting both cable and satellite radio services in an effort to concreting their Christian Right agenda of "propriety." It is unlikely that this can ever happen. The very supporters of the Christian Right's agenda of control and destruction of free thought and speech are the capitalist barons many of whom make their money from the profits from such pay services. But there is no doubt that the war between the FCC and Howard Stern will continue to be waged, at least on the side of the establishment.

Too late, assholes...Howard and his fans have already won.