Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Radio shock jock Howard Stern, who is moving to satellite radio to avoid broadcast decency rules, traded verbal jabs on air with Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell on Tuesday, charging him with nepotism and undermining free speech. "It is apparent to most of us in broadcasting that your father got you your job," said Stern, who called in while Powell was being interviewed on San Francisco's KGO-AM 810. Powell shot back that his father, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), had nothing to do with his appointment. The FCC...

Only a quarter of the radio stations contacted by the New York Post say they're willing to go to the mat to continue broadcasting Howard Stern's radio show. Seventeen stations, representing just under half of Stern's 35 national affiliates, were surveyed by the Post's John Mainelli late last week, after steep FCC fines prompted Stern's syndicator, Clear Channel, to drop him from the roster of six of their outlets. "Only four station managers expressed unabashed support [for Stern]," reports Mainelli. "Another is on the fence, and 12 more avoided all comment." He calls the result of his thumbnail survey a...