David Lee Roth

[UZI Suicide 0]

He's fronted one of the biggest rock bands and he's saved the lives of New York residents as a paramedic with the city's ambulance service. What's next for "Diamond" David Lee Roth? Come January 3, he'll be taking his game to the morning airwaves as one of several celebrity talents recruited to replace satellite-bound shock jock Howard Stern.

 

Roth was a much-hyped mystery guest on Stern's nationwide radio show on Tuesday (October 25), where the rocker revealed his will be the voice greeting Stern regulars the morning of January 3 — at least in several of the markets comprising the self-proclaimed King of All Media's syndicated, 27-station kingdom, an empire Stern has spent decades building.

 

Roth — whose announcement ends months of rumors over just who'd be filling Stern's immense kicks — will take over in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Dallas and West Palm Beach, Florida. "You've built quite an empire here, and I'd like to think that they've saved it for the best guy," Roth told Stern. "It will be a very interesting adventure."

 

Stern, who joked that he should look into fronting Van Halen, surmised that Roth's move was a step down from his rock star stature. Stern also said he's "done what [he] needed to do here," and that he needed "freedom to speak about what I want, and I have to be free to do my type of comedy. I'm happy for you and I do wish you the best" (see " 'Howard Stern Show' To Air — Uncensored — On Satellite Radio In 2006 ").

 

"Putting together this morning radio network was the greatest pride of my life," Stern continued. "When they said I couldn't do it, I said 'You're all insane.' How do you not challenge the future? How do you not challenge this industry? I can't imagine why you would want to do it."

 

Roth, who said working in radio has been a lifelong aspiration, told Stern he was approached for the job in February. He's been living in New York's Lower East Side neighborhood for more than two years. "I'll be performing for more people in one morning than the Rolling Stones will in an entire summer," Roth exclaimed.

 

Infinity Broadcasting (which, like MTV, is owned by Viacom) had approached several big names to replace Stern, including Jon Stewart, Geraldo Rivera, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Bonaduce. Along with news of Roth's appointment comes word that comedian and "Loveline" co-host Adam Carolla will take over for Stern in several West Coast markets, including Los Angeles, Seattle and Phoenix. Jimmy Kimmel, who co-hosted Comedy Central's "The Man Show" with Carolla, will serve as a creative consultant to Carolla's program and Infinity Broadcasting. DJ Rover, who helms the morning show for Cleveland's 92.3 Xtreme Radio has been tapped to replace Stern in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Memphis.

 

Magician Penn Gillette will host an hour-long program scheduled to air immediately following Roth and Carolla.

 

In at least three markets, Stern will be supplanted by the DJ-free Jack-FM radio format, while at least one other will broadcast CNN Morning News. It was also revealed that several stations that currently carry Stern would be switching formats, shifting from music to talk. New York's WXRK, which has served as the base of operations for Stern's empire for years, will adopt a new Free FM format, trading in its rock rotation for talk. Infinity stations in Los Angeles (KLSX-FM), Chicago (WCKG-FM), Dallas (KLLI-FM), Washington, D.C. (WJFK-FM), Detroit (WKRK-FM) and Baltimore (WHFS-FM) have all been re-branded Free FM, effective Tuesday.

 

Roth promises he won't be a Stern carbon copy and said he'll be bringing something completely unique to the table; he promises music in addition to talk, some of which will be political in nature, he said. Much like Stern, Roth revealed that his personal life will never be off-limits.

 

"You've done an extraordinary job and I hope I can honor it," Roth told Stern, adding that he's not worried about facing the same FCC pressures the shock jock coped with (see "Howard Stern Broadcast Costs Clear Channel Nearly $500,000"). "I'm beyond ready."

 

Roth also commented on Stern's future at Sirius Satellite Radio, saying, "It requires someone of your stature to make [the medium successful]."

 

— Chris Harris

MTV.com

[jimmy no nose 0]

Could be good, could be really, really bad. Roth tells some interesting stories, but sometimes he goes off on the longest, most unfunny tangents and laughs at his own jokes the whole way along. He said on Stern this morning that his show is going to be more political, so I don't know how interesting it'll be. David Lee Roth's politics have never been a big interest of mine.

[nl5xsk1 0]

He's done some short-time fill in here in Boston. He's WICKED annoying to listen to. My guess is that his show will be pulled in less than a year.

 

Of course, at this point anything would be more enjoyable than Stern.

[Steviekick 0]

Being that I enjoy listening to WXRK in NY, I'm kinda pissed that they are going to the all talk format.

 

I'm giving Roth 8 months. I don't see how he can possibly be that entertaining on a daily basis.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Geraldo Rivera, Whoopi Goldberg.

 

That's all I got...

[Darthtiki 0]

Fuck Infinity, there Jack format supplanted the rock formatted station which carried the only regular punk show in my area. Unfortunately, we had a Jack format that bombed quick here so maybe they'll switch back to the free fm format they had when O&A were with Infinity. However, I will be interested to hear Adam's show.

[jimmy no nose 0]

Apparently this letter is real and it is GOLD

 

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/riffraff...usive_david.php

 

To: Staff of the Howard Stern Radio Show

From: David Lee Roth (your new boss!)

Re: Some Changes

Date: October 26, 2005

 

Dear Staff,

 

By now you've heard that I, David Lee Roth, have been appointed Howard Stern's successor for the Howard Stern Radio Show.

 

Maybe some of you read about it in the papers; others of you may have just seen me renovating Stern's office, replacing his furniture with six Marshall stack amps I like to call my "musical desk," and his iMac with a collection of vintage guitars I plan on assembling into the shape of the internet. How can I get on the internet, you ask, without the use of a "computer mouse"? Hey, here's a question for you: Who thought of calling that thing a mouse anyway, am I right? What's next, younger men having sex with older women and posting their exploits on websites? I bet they call it a mouse because it looks like a mouse.

 

All I'm saying is: You have nothing to worry about with me, and things aren't going to change at all. I may not be the King of All Media, but I am the King of Allmusic. Take a look at that website and type in "David Lee Roth"--yeah that's right, I've influenced over ten different bands.

 

And after several hours of discussing this with some EMT friends of mine, I've even decided to keep calling the show the "Howard Stern Radio Show." I know that sounds incredibly modest, especially after considering several fantastic suggestions, including " The Howard Stern Radio Show presented by David Lee Roth," the "David Lee Rothio Show," and my personal favorite, "Diamond Dave's Diamondz." The "diamondz" would have referred to the high quality conversations I would have with guests on the show.

 

But let's just keep "Diamond Dave's Diamondz," which I would have nicknamed "D-cubed," to ourselves. Diamonds, as they say, are forever, just like the original name of this show.

 

But will the Howard Stern Radio Show remain as provocative? Can DLR--that's me--KIT--that's "keep it titty"--? Well I'll admit I'm not as interested in women having sex with other women as Mr. Stern was--in fact, I didn't even realize this was a thing people could do.

 

But I'll try my best here. Instead of people calling in and making orgasm sounds on the phone, maybe now we'll also talk to them about the real issues--about how orgasms are destroying our country. Instead of Jerry Seinfeld coming on the show and us ridiculing him mercilessly, maybe we'll let him tell us a few jokes--maybe I still think that guy's pretty goddamn hilarious. Maybe instead of lesbians who make out with other lesbians (again, wow--fucking wow), we'll have the two Van Halen brothers in the office, bickering like they always fucking do, and I'll get angry and try kill one of them.

 

If none of that works, we have a secret weapon: Sammy "the Jokeman" Hagar. I've seen this guy say things backstage that were so funny he should have been arrested. Need some evidence? Here's a joke he wrote especially for this letter:

 

A man walks into bar and looks at the jukebox--all the records in it are by Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers. "Hey," he says, "Do you have any other records besides Tom Petty in this jukebox?" "No," said the bartender. "It's a jewkebox." --by Sammy Hagar

 

Most people don't know that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were Jewish. But have no fear. This transition's going to be painfree. It's not like I'm going to say "Jump!" and you're gonna say "How high?" If anything, it's going to be me saying "Jamie's crying," and you're gonna say, "whah whuuuuh"--but in a funny guitar voice.

 

See you December!

 

David Lee Roth

[The Czech Republic 0]

I'll have what he's having.

 

Also, Jack FM is another big step in the death of radio.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Being that I enjoy listening to WXRK in NY, I'm kinda pissed that they are going to the all talk format.

 

I'm giving Roth 8 months. I don't see how he can possibly be that entertaining on a daily basis.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Be glad you don't live in Philly. We've got our Jack FM station, our "modern rock" station went to rap/r&b (I don't mind, but there were already 2 or 3 already in place), and 1 of the 2 big rock stations (WYSP) went to "free FM" (talk driven from 6 AM to 7 PM).

 

Radio in Philly sucks right now.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Being that I enjoy listening to WXRK in NY, I'm kinda pissed that they are going to the all talk format.

 

I'm giving Roth 8 months. I don't see how he can possibly be that entertaining on a daily basis.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

8 months? Then Sammy Hagar for the other four!

[Vern Gagne 0]

I'll have what he's having.

 

Also, Jack FM is another big step in the death of radio.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

More unemployed deejays is never a bad thing.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

I agree with Howard Stern, I'd want to kill this "Jack" after a while. There was a station around where I live called Star that's now called Mike, and even when it was Star it played a variety, with the really suprising thing being it played techno sometimes, but this Mike thing claims "we play everything" and I wonder if it's related to the Jack thing

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Yes it is. I believe Philly has like "Ben" or something, and other places have other names. "Jack" is just the most common.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Yeah, it's "Ben FM" (as in Ben Franklin) in Philly.

[Red Baron 0]

Ah, he's just copying Bruce Dickinson.

[The Czech Republic 0]

What's the point of an iPod with commercial breaks? If I want to listen to a radio station rather than MP3s, I want there to be an actual format. It's not like the Jack FM playlists are THAT eclectic, anyway.

[Darthtiki 0]

Radio in Philly sucks right now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sacramento is bad too, we have one actual rock station, the other what used to be modern rock radio changed to basically an decaf buttrock/emo station that plays a few old modern rock classics, which is trying to compete with the other buttrock station. We have a pop station, an 80's station which btw supplanted the old first experiment in Jack radio in this market, a rap station, a dental office soft rock station, and a country station.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

I'm totally behind on this stuff. I've been a Loveline listener for probably 8 years, so I know firsthand that Adam Carolla is a hysterical radio host (even if he's not the best on TV). So, people on the west coast, you're lucky. I don't even know what the shit is going to be on JFK in DC (I don't think Roth is going to be on in DC, but I might be wrong), but it's not going to be anything close to what Carolla's show is going to be. If it's anything like Carolla on Loveline, it's going to be gold.

[dubq 0]

I guess his stint as an EMT didn't work out..