Howard Stern stops traffic in Union Square to criticise FCC

Howard Stern was the cause of a huge traffic jam as crowds gathered for an outside broadcast where he handed out Sirius boom boxes and gift certificates and criticised the FCC.

A crowd started gathering in North end of Union Square Park before 8amm and by the time Stern and his team arrived the crowd had grown to over 10,000 – all eagerly awaiting Howard’s giving of “thanks”.

Sirius had big 18 wheel tractor trailers at each end of the park – one of which had been opened into a stage where 500 boxes of radios were neatly stacked. At Noon, with the help of his favorite AC/DC theme music and a couple of Scores Girls, Artie Lange took the stage to introduce Howard and the crew.

The crowd roared, traffic on Broadway, Park Ave South and 17th Street came to a standstill as Howard stepped on to the stage declaring this to be a great day in the history of radio.

Deriding the FCC and praising Sirius’ service, Howard worked the crowd for a little while and then got down to the business of “Giving Thanks”.

Howard, Robin, Fred, Gary and Artie jumped down from the stage and strated handing out the boxes – it took a little less than 45 minutes to hand out all 500 radios – personally. And, lest you think the rest of the crowd went home empty handed, 20,000 gift certificates, redeemable for a free radio, were handed out to the rest of the crowd.

During his promotion Stern told listeners “Down with the FCC – they’ve ruined broadcasting.”