DAVID LEE ROTH'S EGO GOT HIM JOB

David Lee Roth's ego landed him in Howard Stern's seat on CBS Radio morning show in 2006:

By David Hinckley
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


CBS Radio fantasized about getting Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David or Jon Stewart to replace Howard Stern when he left his ultra-successful terrestrial morning radio show at the end of 2005, says the then-CBS executive in charge of the search.

CBS ultimately settled for David Lee Roth, said former CBS exec Rob Barnett, because he was the only viable candidate with an ego large enough to think he could step into Stern’s shoes.

“That couldn’t have been your first choice,” Stern’s sidekick Robin Quivers said.

“Seventy-eighth choice,” said Barnett, who eventually rose to the position of CBS Radio president before he was downsized out of a job.Barnett guested on Stern’s
Sirius XM show Tuesday morning. He and Stern both said the drama led to many dead ends and some lingering hard feelings.

First of all, said Barnett, the idea of replacing Stern, who was heard in New York on WXRK (92.3 FM) and had one of the most popular syndicated shows in the country, was a “ridiculous impossibility."

“The only name that advertisers would hear and think ‘maybe we’ll put one twentieth of Howard’s dollars on that’…was Jon Stewart.”

So he approached then-CBS Radio President Joel Hollander, “and I said, Jon’s not going to host a radio show. But Jon is a producer and a person who develops new talent. Jon developed Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, not radio guys. Stewart is a big name and I wanted him to meet Joel.”

Then “two minutes into the meeting,” said Barnett, Hollander asked Stewart to host, and “Jon quickly wrapped up the meeting.”

Hollander also contacted Seinfeld, Chris Rock and others, said Barnett, even though “all the money in the world couldn’t get them to do five hours of live radio. They’re already rich.”

Hollander also turned down the idea of Opie and Anthony, said Barnett.

So it came down to Roth, he said, who was eager to take the job and did a tryout in Boston that Barnett called “amazing.”

But when Roth got to Stern’s seat in early 2006, it all went south. He lingered a few months, long enough to go down as one of the major disasters in radio history.

“The meltdown came day one or day two,” said Barnett, “when he got in the chair … and wouldn’t listen to anyone that was there to do only one thing….to help him.”

Opie and Anthony took over a few months later and eventually were also cashiered when the ratings never approached Stern territory.

Many of Stern’s old stations eventually changed formats. K-Rock, which played rock during non-Stern hours, is now a top-40.

All this has been resurrected lately as Stern approaches the end of his five-year deal with Sirius XM, in December, and speculation mounts about what he will do next.

He has denied he has any plans to return to “free” radio, where he said again on Tuesday that censorship restrictions drove him nuts.

He also said he still has “a tremendous amount of animosity” toward Hollander and current CBS CEO Les Moonves.

“Joel Hollander, I have no love for the guy,” Stern said. “And Les Moonves treated me horribly. They wished me well. Then a couple of months later they sued me.“

Stern also said that while he liked Roth and wished him well, he knew he would fail when he didn’t seem to grasp the idea that talking to a radio audience is different than talking to the crowd at a rock concert.

“He looked at me with a blank stare,” said Stern, “like he wasn’t concerned.”

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