Grant vs. Stern: animosity or respect?

Fri Dec 16 07:24:27 UTC 2005

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Grant vs. Stern: animosity or respect? 
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ANDY EDELSTEIN

December 15, 2005

There's a connection between the two provocative New York radio personalities who will soon be leaving their longtime gigs.

Bob Grant was one of Howard Stern's radio heroes. As a Long Island high-schooler in the early 1970s, Stern avidly listened to Grant's afternoon talk show on WMCA. The once and future radio talk titans even met each other.

Grant told Paul D. Colford, author of the 1996 Stern bio, "Howard Stern: King of All Media," about being approached at a public appearance by Ben Stern, Howard's father, his teenage son in tow. Father introduced son to Grant and told him of Howard's desire to go into radio. "I looked at this big, gawky kid and I said to him, 'Just be yourself,'" Grant recalled.

Obviously, Stern took Grant's advice to heart.

And in a 1985 interview with CNN's Larry King, when Stern was asked which broadcast personalities he liked, the soon-to-be king of all media could only name one: Grant.

But, Colford notes, as Stern's popularity increased, he began changing his opinion of Grant - at least in public. Grant always thought Stern's new, more negative assessment was just "part of his act." 

Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Inc. 

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