If you listen to a show from early 2003, you hear a show operating at the height of its powers, but the walls were closing in. Following the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident in February 2004 (the fallout of which bled heavily into late 2003 dynamics), the FCC launched a crusade. For Stern, 2003 was defined by the "Dump Button."
To help you generate a paper on the , I have synthesized key historical context and themes from that pivotal year. 2003 was a landmark period for the show, serving as the "calm before the storm" before its move to satellite radio. howard stern archive 2003