The Josh Innes Show - Dumb Story Comparing Joe Rogan To Howard Stern

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

There is an industry website that focuses on media. For the most part, the stories written are pointless. Today I saw a preposterous headline and felt it required a podcast episode to fully break it down. The Headline: "The 3 Qualities That Joe Rogan Used To Dethrone Howard Stern As The King Of All Media" The premise is dumb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Jamokes. Welcome in. It's Josh, about 10 o'clock on Friday. Hello, hello. Glad you guys are listening. Glad you guys have been telling your friends about the pod. Continue to do so, and we can continue to do nice things in 2025. As I've told you, my ambition is to make this thing more slickly produced and other things but maybe you don't want that maybe you just enjoy the uh the crudity of a guy in his underpants laying in bed now laying in bed with his puppy in his underpants dog's not in his underpants he doesn't wear underpants but i'm in my underpants just sitting here doing the radio or radio look at me sounding like an old man uh doing the podcast for you so um if you like it and you like it the way it is, cool. If not, we'll try some other shit. Probably going to try

some other shit anyway. Hopefully got a job on the horizon here in the next couple months because if not, your boy's running out of cash. So we shall see. But speaking of podcasts

and radio stuff, so there's this website, Barrett sports media. And I talk about it a lot because they just write a bunch of dumb shit that I think is preposterous. And then I talk about the dumb shit that I think is preposterous and make fun of the dumb shit that I think is preposterous. And it's sad because it's like one of the websites,

it almost has like a monopoly on covering media at this point. Like there are some guys who've been doing really good things at different websites and nobody knows they exist because this barrett media i guess i'll give jason credit has found like a niche and has made it seem like the opinion of he and his minions here is like the most important opinion in the world as it relates to radio so i guess more power to him but um they write some stories on here that I just think are stupid and sometimes they'll give you like ratings up and some of it's fine like the first story on here is Don Imus remembered by current and former WFAN colleagues five years after his passing

that's fine not really an opinion piece and I'm fine with offering opinions I just think a lot of times their opinions are inane and mostly useless and mostly obvious like a lot of times they just say obvious shit uh let me see here uh and a lot of it's just like radio news like Lamont returning to 107.7 the bone in San Francisco at least that's news right so they should get a little news out of that but like a lot of their stories are also just like cut and pasted shit from other places like I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this story that says Stephen A Smith I want freedom to do other things in new ESPN deal I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this is probably like a new york post story that they're just copy and pasting let's see uh or or something of the sort stephen a smith featured commentator and

executive producer on first take is currently in contract negotiations with the company ahead of the expiration of his existing deal there had been reports pertaining blah blah blah blah uh while speaking with espn and first take colleague christ Mad Dog Ruscio on Mad Dog Unleashed. Okay, so it wasn't a situation where it was, you know, copy and pasted from somebody else's work from somewhere like, you know, The Athletic or something. It's actually some comments from Stephen A. Smith on a talk show. Same thing. Then there's also quotes from in the report from Andrew. Oh, sorry.

Actually, yes. In the report from Andrew Marchand of The Athletic of Smith's deal being for $120 million, it states that most of the deal would be paid by ESPN but would have smaller components from Disney Entertainment and a gambling company. So, again, it's not like these guys are out there digging and doing their own work. They're just seeing the work that other people do and going,

all right, I'm going to just link back to this story and get some clicks on my site. So by and large, there's nothing revolutionary happening. They do interview some media people, so I give them credit for that. But for the most part, it's's just this it's the place where basically it's a link hub that goes back to shit other people have written so they take other people's shit write a couple of words around the other people's shit and then there you go but for whatever reason this is considered some sort of important place that people go when they make decisions for radio jobs and other media jobs which I think is preposterous but i guess it is

so uh and then like people will like the best is whenever they release these like top 20 radio shows from each market right uh it's sports i don't know they might do it for news too but it's hysterical because people get all worked up over it and it's literally just a situation where dude takes the same list basically every year and might flip-flop one or two people. Like you can predict where shit's going to be. None of it's truly based on anything. It's based allegedly on the voting of program directors across the country. Program directors across the country don't know what half these fucking radio shows sound like.

They have no clue. That's why every year if you go back and look at the the top radio shows by each market like one year we were in the top 20 when we were in Houston on 790 and then when I got fired that exact spot was just occupied by Sean Salisbury like it's all bullshit cut and paste trash that gets the dude a bunch of clicks and it's garbage I mean it like it requires no thought there's no actual real data being looked at it's just it's kind of like the coaches poll do you think that the coaches sit there and watch florida versus the man uh marshall do you think they actually watch florida play marshall one week or they watch you know all these shitty teams play every week no they have someone fill

out their coaches fucking uh poll and that's the way it goes so like when you look at this shit and people get all worked up over it it's the same goddamn shows every year in the same goddamn order for the most part so it's stupid it's like they have certain spots just penciled in for certain markets and then they whatever show is on there they place that in there and it's bullshit anyway point being there's a lot of bullshit written on here and a lot of lazy, error-filled garbage in here. But, and most notably, there was a story written about when I got laid off at Hubbard. Yet they're like, Josh Ennis claims he got laid off, but we cannot get confirmation on that. Oh, go fuck yourselves.

Protecting your fucking friends. But anyway, all that said i will say uh that there is a story that i have not read i assume it's stupid and obvious but it says the three qualities joe rogan used to dethrone howard stern as the king of all media well the idea that joe rogan dethroned howard stern as the king of all media is a faulty premise to begin with. But let's get into that after these words. Speaking of a Howard Stern thing, after these words. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs,

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Age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus award. It is non-withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings dot com slash promos all right so the headline reads the three qualities joe rogan used to dethrone howard stern as the king of all media first things first kiddos howard stern lost the title of king of all media 20 some odd years ago i guess about 19 or so years ago when he left terrestrial radio and went to Sirius a place where honest and we'll never know how many people actually listen to Sirius but the listenership he's got on Sirius is nowhere

near it was at the apex of his radio uh height that's just reality okay it's not I don't know how many people listen to it and I know that they love to give the credit to Howard for whatever numbers they have and say all these people subscribe to Sirius because Howard's on there. I think it's all a bunch of bullshit. They obviously see some value because they keep paying him. But like right from the jump, the headline, the premise of the story is a flawed, faulty premise. The three qualities Joe Rogan used to dethrone Howard Stern as the king of all media. First of all, Joe Rogan is not the king of all media.

Joe Rogan is the king of one fucking thing. It's impossible to be the king of all media. Actually, you know who's closer to the king of all media than somebody like Joe Rogan who does a podcast, and that podcast is on YouTube, of course, and Spotify. But if you're looking for a guy who's closer to that, Pat McAfee is closer to the king of all media than Joe Rogan is. I guess, though, if you want to get technical, I will say this. If you're looking at king of all media, what made Stern king of all media was he wrote books, he did a movie, he was on radio,

he did television. That was like the premise of the king of all media rogan is closer to that than mcafee and that he is a an actor although he didn't really act in anything anymore but he has uh he's a comedian he's a podcaster you don't want to ignore the comedian part he does big stand-up specials that still get a ton of watches on netflix so uh give him credit for that but i don't believe that anybody can be the king of all me. Honestly, Stephen A. Smith is closer to the king of all me. Like the premise of this story is already garbage because Joe Rogan is the podcast king. And I agree that Joe Rogan is way more impactful than Howard Stern is. Like if that was the comparison, like why Joe Rogan is more

impactful than Howard Stern, I'd say absolutely. Howard Stern makes zero impact. People blow him because of his interviews with Jonah fucking Hill and shit. But other than that, no one gives a shit and Stern makes no impact. You want to know when Stern makes news and makes impact? When Stern tells Trump people that they're fucking idiots and he hopes they die. That's the only time he can make news. That's the same thing with all the hardcore liberal people like Rachel Maddow and all these other people. They make news when they

go at the Trump people. And other than that, they got nothing. Stern has not been a truly impactful, game-changing, narrative-controlling human in the media space in a long time, nor do I think he wants to be. I think he's totally content doing what he's doing and by the way what he's doing isn't terrible he does really good interviews I don't hear them much anymore because I don't have serious but back when I did like kind of as he was transitioning from you know throwing baloney on chicks asses to doing better interviews but the show still kind of felt like a real show it was on every day they still did a lot of show shit but they also did the the great interviews I thought they were great I think he's quite content being the guy that sits around and

interviews people now and I have no qualms with that I have no issues do you dude I don't listen to it but do whatever makes you happy you're making a billion dollars go do the shit you've essentially become what you detested allegedly when you were on the come up but that's fine do what you do but let's go back to the premise of this story that i have not read one one sentence of but i will the three qualities joe rogan to use to dethrone howard stern as the king of all media again the premise itself is a bogus premise because joe rogan is not the king of all media this i'm just an oscar has Has Joe Rogan written a book? You know who's written a book?

And you know who has a podcast? And you know who's on YouTube? And you know who's on television? And you know who appears in, I think has appeared in movies before too? Stephen A. Smith. If you're looking for someone who's closer to the king of all media, it's Stephen A. Smith. You want to look at someone who's closer to the king of all media, real talk, and I think this guy's way out of sight,

way out of mind, and I don't listen to his shit. I think he's boring. But Dan Patrick. Dan Patrick still has a radio show, still podcast, appears in these Adam Sandler movies. He's probably written a book, if I had to guess. His show is on the radio. So, like, he's closer.

Now, again, maybe they're just using the term king of all media and not looking at it literally, but I'm going to look at it literally because the point of the king of all media was every possible place that you could be in the media space. Howard Stern not only did it, but did it at a massive level. Private parts was a number one book and a number one movie. Miss America was a number one bestselling book. The radio show was tops in the country. This is before podcasts, obviously, so that wasn't going to be a factor. Television. Stern really didn't have great success doing TV, but he did TV. He did the Channel 9 show.

And if you want to talk about being a king of television guest appearances, Tonight Show, Letterman. He was epic on those shows. So when he made appearances, he was there. So king of all media, that was Stern. Fine he made appearances he was there so king of all media that was stern fine joe rogan is not the king of all media but joe rogan and his podcast have giant impact on major political things and i don't believe that howard does i don't like look you know who howard talked to he talked to kamala kamala still got her ass kicked didn't matter that she talked to howard and the reason is because Howard's audience is shrinking and Howard's audience and the people that built Howard have fled because Howard's doing completely opposite of what he did to get those

people. It was a bait and switch. He did everything to get you. And now he decided that he wanted to just interview these dopes that honestly, none of us really give a shit about. Like every now and then you get a good long form interview and you're like, oh wow, like Paul McCartney, that's pretty cool. Paul McCartney is one of the most legendary musicians ever. So that's cool. But I don't know how many times I need to hear from fucking Seth Rogen. Back when I used to listen and I had access to it on XM, I would listen and I'd go, God damn, I don't care about Joe Rogan and I don't care about fucking Amy Schumer and I don't care about all these fucking people that are your friends. I don't care about Jimmy Kimmel, the greatest sellout that you can imagine. I don't care about Joe Rogan, and I don't care about fucking Amy Schumer, and I don't care about all these fucking people that are your friends. I don't care about Jimmy Kimmel, the greatest sellout that you can imagine.

I don't give a shit about these people. But anyway, let's actually get into this story and see if the headline is even anything remotely close to what is in the body of the story. The three qualities Joe Rogan used to dethrone Howard Stern as king of all media. This is at Barrett Media. For decades, Howardone Howard Stern as king of all media. This is at Barrett Media. For decades, Howard Stern has been the king of all media. If you believe that's still the case, you couldn't be more wrong.

Joe Rogan holds the throne now. Boy, this is like, these stories are written like children wrote them. They're very just boxy and they just feel like something that like a 12 year old wrote. Like back when I was a kid and they would have you write like a, write a movie review for a movie you really like or something, you know, or a book report. 2024 was the year of Joe Rogan, which is saying something because you could probably argue every year since 2020 has been the year of Joe Rogan. The Joe Rogan experience has been a dominant player in the podcast space.

There are a few other shows, if any, that command the audience that the comedian and UFC commentator does. But as part of a new deal with Spotify, Rogan has been able to increase his media presence on YouTube. And that has made all the difference in earning the title of King of All Media away from Howard Stern. The premise is bullshit. The premise is bullshit because no one operates in any sort of universe that Howard Stern is the king of all fucking media because he's not. Go down the list of people who are more impactful than Howard Stern. Stern is bottom of the barrel in terms of impact. Dude, look at the dudes who have major podcasts that make waves and do other things as well.

Fuck, The Undertaker might be more impactful than Howard Stern. Mark Calloway, The Undertaker, had fucking Trump on his podcast this year. The Undertaker, a fucking wrestler, had Trump on. Stern won't talk to Trump because he's too busy up Kamala's fucking asshole. And it didn't make any impact. So there are like, there are other podcasts if truly, and based on this guy, it sounds like the one major criteria is that he's on YouTube. Well, everybody's on fucking YouTube and everybody has a big audience on YouTube. Tucker Carlson has a gigantic fucking audience. I mean, shit. These are people that have

huge audiences. The Call Her Daddy show is a bigger, more impactful show. Oh, you want to go even deeper? Fucking Dave Portnoy is infinitely more impactful than Howard Stern, doing the bit that Stern did forever, which was just being irreverent and interesting and going against the establishment. So just the premise alone on this story is bogus. Joe Rogan stole the king of all media crown from Howard Stern. He has, like, that was a self-anointed crown, and by the way, he's not that. I don't know why I'm so angry about this. It's pissing me off, though. But anyway, let's continue this story. Let's, this completely flawed logic story

that sounds like it was written by a 12 year old. His channel has nearly 19 million subscribers on the platform, while his backup channel JRE Clips features almost 8 million additional subscribers. According to figures quietly released by Spotify earlier this year, the show has 14.5 million followers on the app. And that was before the high profile discussions with the Republican presidential ticket. Rogan earned massive audiences on the digital video app during his conversations with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, but they weren't the only episodes that saw big viewership totals. Even conversations with more mundane subjects earned more than 3 million viewers on YouTube.

Thank you for letting us know that you went to YouTube and looked at videos and saw how many views they had. But how did Joe Rogan rise to the top of the media ecosystem? Well, he used the same three qualities that Howard Stern did. Curiosity. Let's see. Joe Rogan's curiosity has propelled him to digital media stardom. Does that curiosity lead him into trouble at times? Undoubtedly, but that's part of what makes Rogan endearing. He is curious about a variety of topics. He's built an audience that is both curious about the topics, but also about what Rogan's thoughts on any given subjects are. I agree with this. I think curiosity is one, and I will agree with the person that wrote this when you say that curiosity is one of the most important factors in being interesting. I believe I have a natural curiosity. That's why I'm a good interviewer.

That's why I listen and follow up. That's why I don't even write down fucking questions for interviews. I just go into it as a conversation and I listen to what the person says and I ask a follow-up. Not that this is about me, but I'm a good interviewer. Like Rogan, Stern is curious too. He's famous for asking inappropriate questions to the biggest newsmakers in the entertainment space. But they don't come, at least in my opinion, from a place of depravity as much as he's genuinely curious about people. Well, I would disagree with that.

I think he's just depraved in that way, and that's fine. Let's see. While discussing why an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris never came to fruition, Rogan shared that he wanted to do a longer discussion than one hour time slot. I feel like if you give someone a couple of hours when you start talking about anything, I'm going to see a pattern of the way you think, said Rogan. I'm going to see the way you process ideas. I'm going to see whether or not you're calculated or whether you're just free or you're just comfortable with you. Okay, so the first thing was that.

The second factor is authenticity. This is why Joe Rogan has overtaken Howard Stern as the king of all media, according to Barrett Sports Media, even though, again, Howard Stern hasn't been the king of all media in forever. And Joe Rogan is not the king of all media. Again, it's all media. The idea of the king of all media was Howard Stern wrote bestselling books. Howard Stern had the biggest radio show. Howard Stern had a number one fucking movie. Like that was the concept of king of all media. He was the greatest guest on television when he'd go on Letterman. That was the point of the king of all media. Not that he had a big podcast. Also, authenticity. The idea that Stern was ever authentic is total bullshit. Stern put on an act and did the act that was necessary to do at that time and place, which is fine. But in the 90s, it was a far more edgier world and the anti-hero

is very popular and Stern went against all that. I don't believe anything Howard Stern has ever did or ever done rather has been authentic. I believe Howard goes with whatever direction Howard needs to go to fit in with the times. So back in the anti-hero era of the 1990s where he hated everybody and he's knocking people like Don Imus for fucking younger wives. What does he do? He goes out and gets himself a younger wife, becomes super political. He's interviewing presidential candidates and he's super liberal and woke like all of his buddies are.

The reality about Stern is Stern always wanted to be on the inside and could never get on the inside because back then he was counterculture and the antihero. Now he just is the culture. Therefore, he's in and that's all he's ever wanted to be. So spare me the idea of Howard Stern's authenticity. The guy's changed a billion times. And you can say, well, you know, people are allowed to change. And they are. That's fair. But I'm allowed to look at the way you've changed and think if I feel it's authentic or if you're just changing because someone told you that's the way you needed to change. And I've listened to Artie and all the guys talk about it enough,

but I believe Stern just got the, I forgot the chick's name, Marcy maybe, whatever her name was, that just shifted who Stern was and turned him into who he is now, which is fine. Excellent interviewer, whatever. By the way, I don't think you can go on the radio every day and do the dumb shit they were doing in the 90s. Shit evolves. But I think Stern, if you want to say authentic,

I don't believe Howard Stern was authentic. I believe Howard Stern was always just someone looking to say outrageous shit. And he did a good job of convincing you that he was the everyman. But what you learned when he got fucking rich and moved to the Hamptons is he's not the everyman. And in fact, he fucking hates the everyman. What's number three? Indifference. Finally, Joe Rogan built his following largely on i don't give a fuck an attitude that stern once exuded on terrestrial radio many people are insecure they don't know or don't like who they are rogan doesn't fall into that camp uh camp he knows who he is what he does what he means and isn't afraid to wield the power so that's basically that so if joe rogan exudes the same three attributes that howard stern did and still does how did he replace by the way

he doesn't possess those that's another thing where you are flawed he's a totally different human rogan took those three qualities the same three qualities that led Stern to stardom, and did them on emerging platforms. He saw where the shift in the media space was going and pounced on them like a starving man on a Christmas ham. Joe Rogan was ahead of the curve, and that's how he replaced Howard Stern as the king of all media. My God, this was like it was written by a goddamn child. And that's how he replaced Howard Stern as the king of all media. All right. Like, okay, whatever.

Again, like do a better job of understanding what the idea of the king of all media was. And be honest with yourself that Howard Stern hasn't been even remotely close to the king of all media in multiple decades. What are you doing? The second he decided to roll off to XM and be off in space and doing very little outside of that, the king of all media thing is over. Oh, but he wrote another book. He wrote another book,

which was literally transcripts of interviews he did on the fucking radio. It was the biggest fucking letdown ever. I guess you gotta give Stern some credit. He was on that shitty, well, back to the thing about the king of all media, America's Got Talent. fucking letdown ever i guess you got to give stern some credit he was on that shitty uh well back to the thing about the the uh the king of all media america's got talent but still like that like the premise was so flawed on that story like if you want to tell me that he's more

important than howard stern that's fine but you're you're and i get that you're trying to get attention and like if that story goes out there, someone will see it and get legs and blah, blah, blah. But nothing in there was like some sort of cutting edge thought. None of it was like, oh boy, that was hardcore. Like no shit, Joe Rogan's a more important person right now than Howard Stern. We don't even know what the fuck Howard Stern does. He pulls his pud in his basement and does a radio show for two hours a week or whatever it is of course uh dude don imus up until the time he died don imus was a more important impactful political person than howard

stern was so it's just not like i i would be fine with the idea of the story if your headline wasn't the attention grabbing the king of all media titles been stolen from Stern? If not, and also multiple people have stolen that from Stern over the years. Shit. How about a dude? You want to get technical. Again, the concept of king of all media was dominating on multiple platforms. Look, I don't even like this guy as a putz, but what about Sean Hannity? Writes books, highly rated radio show, highly rated television show, podcast. Sean Hannity had a bigger claim. Now, if you want to say again, Joe Rogan is the most important media person in the country, say that. But I know you're trying to get attention and trying to like, oh, let's go with Howard Stern and see what we can

get out of this. Well, it was bullshit and the premise was stupid. Therefore, I hated the story anyway and I was never going to give it a chance. Your premise sucked. Thank you.