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July 2, 2004
Attorney activist tunes up to snag Stern
By Kristi Swartz, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
As shock jock Howard Stern's radio show returns to South Florida on July 19, Coral Gables attorney Jack Thompson will be waiting with open ears.
And a tape recorder.
"I love it because now I can record this maniac again and get him whacked again," Thompson said.
New York-based Infinity Broadcasting Corp. is putting Stern's show on West Palm Beach's new-rock WPBZ-FM 103.1 (The Buzz), along with eight other stations in other cities next month. Infinity, which syndicates the show in 35 other cities, is returning it to five markets where Clear Channel Communications Inc. had pulled it in the broadcasting corporation's effort to clean up the airwaves.
Stern, the self-proclaimed "King of all Media," is known for his foul language and sexually explicit comedy.
"They are throwing down the gauntlet with the FCC by putting Stern on more stations," Thompson said.
Thompson, who has made a legal career of fighting anything he deems pornographic and obscene, has attacked everything from rap group 2 Live Crew to the video game Grand Theft Auto III.
And he has a history with Stern and with the FCC. In April 2003, Thompson caught a portion of Stern's show after dropping his son off at school, and didn't like what he heard.
"I know what the legal standard is; I know what indecent material is," he said. "I heard it and filed a complaint."
The complaint Thompson filed with the Federal Communications Commission led to hefty fines against San Antonio-based Clear Channel, which dropped Stern's show in February and later settled with the FCC for $2 million.
On Wednesday, Infinity filed suit in federal court in New York against Clear Channel, asking for $10 million in damages for the February cancellations. Clear Channel would not comment on Infinity's expansion of Stern's show but offered a statement about the lawsuit.
"Howard Stern is the only one who has broken the law. His contract explicitly requires his show comply with all FCC rules and regulations. On several occasions, it clearly did not," said Andy Levin, Clear Channel's executive vice president and chief legal officer. "Clear Channel Radio had both a legal right and an obligation to stop broadcasting it.
A spokesman for Infinity Broadcasting did not return calls Thursday.
Thompson theorizes that Infinity is purposely placing Stern's show on WPBZ because the station cannot be heard much past northern Broward County, he said.
"I think they don't want it to reach into Coral Gables," he said.
Radio analyst Tom Taylor disagrees.
"This is just my judgment, but believe me if they had a chance to get a full-market signal in Miami, they'd do it," said Taylor, editor of Littleton, N.H.-based Inside Radio.
Thompson might be able to find a way to get Stern's show removed again. Though the now decade-old lawsuit was overturned, Thompson persuaded a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale to declare obscene the lyrics of 2 Live Crew's Nasty As They Wanna Be.
He has often appeared on television as part of his crusade against sex and violence in the entertainment industry. He also has filed lawsuits representing families of victims whose attackers shot or stabbed them after playing violent video games or surfing the Internet.
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