Sixteen People In Howard Stern’s Universe, From Robin Quivers to Crackhead Bob
Robin Quivers has been Howard's newscaster and co-anchor since they were paired up in Washington D.C. 30 years ago. In 1997, she played herself in the movie Private Parts. The film shows her being fired by WNBC's program director for not running a raunchy bit, but in reality the New York radio channel didn't hire her when they brought Stern to the city in 1982. He eventually convinced them to hire her, and they have remained together ever since. Howard was shocked when CNN's Piers Morgan suggested that Howard selected her because of her race. "I couldn't care what color she was [when we started], he said. "I was desperate. I needed somebody who was fantastic on the radio to work with me, someone who played off me, who had a fabulous laugh, who got my humor, knew when to back off and let me roll and knew when to come in and save me. And that was Robin."
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Fred Norris
Howard has been working with Fred Norris longer than anybody else at his radio show. Norris and Stern met whey they were both working at a Hartford radio station in 1980. Norris worked nights and he often stayed past his timeslot to do bits with Stern in the morning. They developed a great working relationship that continues to this day, even though Stern designed his studio so he would be unable to even see Norris. "Fred is my biggest distraction," Stern tells Rolling Stone. "He doesn't really react to anything I do. I don't want to see Fred. I can get caught up in watching what he is doing, and I don't want to be aware of it…Truth be told, I don't even hear the sound effects he creates. I only hear it if I'm in the car and I hear the playback, and I go 'ooh that was brilliant! He was playing Baba Booey, I didn't even know that.'"
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Gary Dell’Abate
Dell'Abate was an intern at WNBC in 1984 when a job opened up to produce the Howard Stern show. He landed it and has been there ever since, eventually becoming a minor-celebrity due to how often Stern has put him on the air over the years. To legions of fans he's known as Baba Booey, simply because he got the name of Quick Draw McGraw's cartoon sidekick Baba Looey wrong back in 1990. Last year he released the book They Call Me Baba Booey and appeared on many national talks shows, including Late Night With David Letterman.
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Richard Christy
An accomplished heavy metal drummer in bands like Iced Earth and Death, Christy was a huge Stern fan when he won a 2004 contest to take Stuttering John's job. Since then he's become known for his prank phone calls and eagerness to get naked and perform stunts with his comedy partner Sal Governale.
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Sal Governale
Sal Governale was a stockbroker with a habit of making prank phone calls when he became a regular caller into the Stern show in the mid-1990s. He was hired as a comedy writer in 2004, and he's best known for telling shockingly detailed stories about his troubled marriage and sex life.
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Benjy Bronk
Benjy Bronk is the only person in Stern's studio besides Norris and Quivers, but he usually doesn't speak. Instead, he writes jokes on a computer that Stern seamlessly incorporates into his act. A disciple of the Andy Kaufman school of comedy, Bronk often goes into character while taping public bits and becomes extremely aggressive with strangers.
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Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling
Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling was the head comedy writer on the show between 1983 and 2001. (He left over a contract dispute.) Martling was often mocked for his high voice, his cheapness and his old age. He's an occasional guest on the show, but Stern says that he'll never rehire him.
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Artie Lange
Former Mad TV cast member Artie Lange took over Jackie Martling's role as the show's comic sidekick from 2001 until early 2010, when he attempted to kill himself. Since then he's been recovering privately. "Artie has even said to me recently that he would be willing to come back on the show and explain what happened," Stern tells Rolling Stone. "I don't feel strong enough within myself or that I'd be doing the right thing by him, because I don't want to do the wrong thing for Artie. I just want Artie to stay alive."
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George Takei
Best known for his role as Commander Sulu on the original Star Trek series, Takei became the show's part-time announcer when they moved to Sirius in 2006. The role began as a joke, but Takei quickly became a huge part of the show – even though he only sits in about four weeks a year. He talks openly and cheerfully about his life, whether he's telling graphic gay-sex stories or talking about his hatred of William Shatner. Every time he's on, fans call up and beg Howard to hire him full-time.
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Beetlejuice
The most popular member of Stern's "Wack Pack," Lester "Beetlejuice" Green is four feet three inches tall, and has an abnormally small head because he suffers from microcephaly. Stern fans love him because he answers any question Stern poses, even when he has no idea what he's talking about. In 2004 he composed the oddly catchy song "This Is Beetle," which was later covered by Staind and Blues Traveler. "He's like a little black, midget Mozart," Stern said at the time.
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Daniel Carver
Daniel Carver is a carpenter in Georgia and a proud member of the Ku Klux Klan. A part of the show since the mid-1980s, Carver seems unaware that Stern has him on the show to mock his beliefs. At one point he was reviewing movies for the show, giving films like Beloved and Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood a rating of one to four flaming crosses.
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Fred the Elephant Boy
Another longtime member of the Wack Pack, Fred has a severe speech impediment and a history of sex with other men. That's more than enough to earn him hundreds of hours on the air over the past 25 years.
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High Pitch Eric
Born with an unusually high-pitched voice, Eric will pretty much do anything to get on the air – he'll happily let Stern's team measure his bowel movements or dress up like a whore. Howard is fascinated by Eric's impoverished lifestyle, gluttony and constant schemes to use his minimal fame to get free stuff.
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‘Gary the Retard’ and ‘Wendy the Retard’
"Gary the Retard" and "Wendy the Retard" are both regular callers. Wendy likes to share her songs; Gary is more interested in pornography. They went on a date once at a bowling alley and discovered that they were quite compatible. Howard said he set them up because they had the same last name.
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Bigfoot
A shockingly tall man with a tendency to say "it is" in nearly every sentence, Bigfoot won a 2006 contest to be the next member of the "Wack Pack." Bigfoot often runs into trouble with the law in his native Vermont, and relays graphic stories about his time in prison.
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Crackhead Bob
Crackhead Bob's speech impediment is so bad that it's often difficult to understand anything he says. The Stern crew loves to tape him attempting to order food for delivery. His problems stem from a series of strokes he suffered while he was a crack addict.
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