Book Review: "They Call me Baba Booey"

I've been a Howard Stern fan since I bought a car with Sirius installed (before, my car had XM). He'd been just past first year of his five year contract that took him off of terrestrial radio with his never-ending battle with the censors and station management (well chronicled in Stern's book and movie of the same name, "Private Parts"). On satellite, Stern was not answerable to the FCC. On his show, anything goes, which I both respect and enjoy.

His producer of 25 years, Gary Dell'Abate, just published an autobiography which focuses mostly on his youth, while flash forwarding for some anecdotes from his time on the Howard Stern show. It's obvious that Gary wanted to get his childhood experiences off his chest. From page one, the book uses his mother as gravitational force around which he and his family orbited. Full of memorable reminiscents (Gary described how he would religiously listen to Casey Kasem's top 40 Weekly Countdown, only to be disappointed years later when outtakes of Kasem recording his bits between songs was played during the Stern show. Kasem swore up a storm and didn't obviously care about the material, crushing Gary's memory of him).

For fans of the Stern show, this is a must read. Listening to Dell'Abate on the radio every day naturally causes me as a listener to develop certain assumptions about his background. His work ethic has always been strong on the show, and he makes sure to underline this as a theme throughout his life. There are a few funny stories regarding his 'radio family' as he puts his Stern co-workers, and I was surprised at how truly and totally crushed he was over the ceremonial first pitch he threw at a Mets game in 2009 to support Autism. He really, really blew it - and got hell for it from every corner. It really got to him, even with the thick skin he developed growing up with his semi-crazy mom.

I recommend this book only to fans of the show. If you have no idea who this guy is, most of the references to the Stern Universe will make no sense, and even though his family history is full of interesting (and sometimes tragic) experiences, unless you have a connection to the author, it won't grab and hold on to your attention and interest.

As a footnote, given the theme of this blog, I read most of this book on the SEA>ONT segment of my trip to Palm Springs with my wife.