I’m newer to Howard Stern’s early WNBC era, so I’m trying to understand the company politics behind his firing and how NBC/WNBC viewed him at the time.
I was watching the Mr. Bludclot YouTube video titled “CHAOS ENSUES after YOU KNOW WHO gets FIRED from NBC and has MELTDOWN on AIR”, and from what I gather, the clip is from either the day he was fired or shortly before it happened.
In the clip, Howard seems furious after finding out that Soupy Sales was getting a show. He goes into a long rant about being treated like the black sheep of the network, not being respected, and not getting the kind of support or opportunities that others at the station were getting. He also tries calling executives, gets stonewalled by some, and when he does reach people, they seem to brush him off or not take his threats of walking seriously.
What confuses me is the ratings context. Howard mentions that he was pulling around a 5.7 share, while Soupy Sales was around a 1.6 share, and I believe the late-night slot was also around 1.6. So from the outside, it looks like Howard was clearly one of the strongest performers at WNBC, yet management still treated him like a problem instead of protecting him.
So my question is why?
Why would WNBC/NBC treat talent with much stronger ratings this way? Was it purely because of content and controversy, or were there deeper company politics involved? Could he not pull advertisers?