"When you hire me, you hire a nut who is going to work 24 hours a day for you and never, ever burn his audience"
About this Quote
The sharper move is the phrase “never, ever burn his audience.” Stern knows the real boss isn’t the network, the advertiser, or the station manager; it’s the listeners who show up daily and feel like co-conspirators. “Burn” signals a particular fear in shock-jock culture: that the provocateur will eventually betray the implicit contract by becoming cynical, lazy, or contemptuous of the very crowd he cultivated. Stern’s whole career plays with antagonism, but he’s drawing a line between teasing your audience and cashing them out.
Context matters: Stern rose by weaponizing intimacy and outrage inside a tightly controlled broadcast ecosystem. The quote reads like a negotiation tactic aimed at gatekeepers who worry he’s too volatile to employ. He reframes volatility as reliability: the same mania that makes him risky is what keeps him consistent. Subtext: if you’re hiring Stern, you’re not buying “content.” You’re buying a relationship, maintained through relentless attention and an almost paranoid loyalty to the people on the other side of the dial.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work Ethic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Stern, Howard. (2026, January 17). When you hire me, you hire a nut who is going to work 24 hours a day for you and never, ever burn his audience. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-hire-me-you-hire-a-nut-who-is-going-to-56182/
Chicago Style
Stern, Howard. "When you hire me, you hire a nut who is going to work 24 hours a day for you and never, ever burn his audience." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-hire-me-you-hire-a-nut-who-is-going-to-56182/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When you hire me, you hire a nut who is going to work 24 hours a day for you and never, ever burn his audience." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-hire-me-you-hire-a-nut-who-is-going-to-56182/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.







