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| S&V Editor-in-Chief Mike Mettler (left) with Gary Dell'Abate |
What's your take on the possibility of a SiriusXM merger?
I'm thrilled about it, and not just because I work there. The consumer will get more options in one radio. And we'll double our audience.
It's got to go through three levels: First the shareholders, which shouldn't be a problem. Then the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, which has to rule whether it's a monopoly or not, and we're hoping there won't be any trouble there. And then there's the FCC, and that's the one where they say it's going to be tough. The thing I'm getting out if it all is, they're not going to make it easy, but it'll probably happen.
What are your favorite Sirius channels?
The '80s Channel, of course. I also like First Wave a lot, too. I didn't think I'd like them, but I dig the classic-rock channels — The Vault, Classic Vinyl, and Classic Rewind. I also like Underground Garage, Hits 1, The Spectrum, Octane, Alt Nation, and Raw Dog. And I get a kick out of The Strobe. I'm not religious, but I can go for a good gospel tune once in a while on Praise.
Do you remember the first album you bought?
I do. My older brother was sending away for one of those Columbia House things — you know, three or five records for a penny — so he let me pick one. I picked Gary Lewis & the Playboys' Greatest Hits. [both chuckle] Then I went to work in a record store, and I got completely out of control.
Name your five favorite CDs.
God, that's so hard. I'll give you five now and probably five different ones tomorrow. Every day it's different, but here goes.
- Steely Dan: Aja. That's the first CD I ever heard that sounded like they were right there in my room.
- Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel of Love. Not the best Bruce CD ever, but it's underappreciated — and it sounds great.
- Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory. There's not one bad song on that CD.
- System of a Down: Toxicity. I didn't think I liked this kind of music — and it turns out I don't. I just like them! It's loud and fast with actual hooks!
- The Allman Brothers Band: At Fillmore East. I wish I was old enough to have seen this version of the band. One of those concerts where everything was not perfect, but just right.
Okay, now give me your favorite DVDs.
Let's see. I'm going to have to combine some of these.
- Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. I've been using these as surround-sound demo discs, and they're awesome. The subwoofer shakes the house. My younger son said that it felt like we were actually in the war. My dad fought in WWII in Okinawa, so it really hit home. They happen to be great movies, too.
- The Wire and Deadwood. I watched almost every episode of both these shows exclusively on DVD. They're better than any other shows on TV. I am obsessed with The Wire! [So am I — Ed.]
- The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection. The episodes still hold up. I love watching these with my kids. They were scared in the middle of the day. My favorite episode is "To Serve Man," the one with the cookbook. My second favorite is "Eye of the Beholder," where she had to have her face redone, or else they'll send her away. You don't see anybody else's face at first. When they take off the bandages and she's beautiful, you see that everybody else has pig faces.
- Saturday Night Live: 25 Years of Music. Elvis Costello, Mick Jagger and Peter Tosh, John Belushi and Joe Cocker ... Classic shit! With great sound!
- The Chronicles of Narnia. I went to see it with the kids. I'm the only one who liked it, and I think that's because I love the way it looks. The colors are so vivid and the designs are so amazing. It's what The Wizard of Oz would look like it if were made today.
I'm also looking forward to checking out Children of Men, because it was up for cinematography awards. Also, Pan's Labyrinth — I'm almost glad I haven't seen it yet because I want to see it here at home first.
Who's been a guest you've gotten on The Howard Stern Show whom you thought you'd never get?
Martha Stewart. I never thought that would happen.
Madonna. I thought there was a minute where I was going to get her, but that ain't ever gonna happen.
Gee, there's a surprise.
Well, she's English now.
You're still a fan of laserdiscs, right?
Oh yeah. One day, Howard was getting rid of a bunch of them, and I said, "Don't throw them out!" He goes, "All right, if you want 'em ..." So I got two shopping bags full of 40 laserdiscs each to go with the other hundred or so I have. And I've still got my player hooked up in my system.
You know what I have on laserdisc that you can't get on DVD yet? The Compleat Beatles. My son and I watched it together the other day, and he said, "Man, Yoko really messed up that group." [both laugh] You know what? I didn't have to say a word. He saw it all for himself.
I love the Akai reel-to-reel player you have here.
I always wanted to get one. We used to do everything on the show on reel-to-reel tape, and I thought it would be so great to have one of these at home just to do some editing and other stuff. I went to a tag sale, and they had an Akai player and an Akai microphone for 25 bucks. I said to the lady, "Will you take $20 for it?" And she said, "No, I really need $25." I would've given her $100! So I bought it, and then I called my old roommate, Greg Aull, an engineer who used to work with us at NBC and was then working on [1997's] Private Parts. Howard had hired him since he decided that every radio station shown in the movie had to be functional. He didn't want to put on headphones and "pretend" to be on the air — he wanted to be on the air. Greg wound up renting the reel-to-reel from me that summer for $150 just to use in the movie, so I made $125! I'm not entirely sure, but I think you can see it in the movie when Howard's at DC 101.
And what about the Victrola in the living room?
When my older son Jackson was little, we'd plug it in and play it back. My younger son Lucas keeps asking about it, so we're going to play him some records. I just have to find the right speakers to go with it for
proper modulation. [both laugh]
There are also a lot of vintage radios all over the house.
When I started buying radios, a couple of guys at work started making fun of me. I think Howard even said something like, "Oh God, how trite. Every guy in radio has to collect old radios." But I wasn't collecting them because I was in radio — I was collecting them because they were cool. I'm more relaxed about it now, but at first I wouldn't even buy them unless they worked.
I saw a pretty cool guitar case up in your older son's room.
Jackson has taken up playing guitar, and the amp in his room is a tube amp. I took up guitar for like a second in the mid-'80s.
Here, come check this out. [We head down to an unfinished corner of the basement where a pile of boxes currently resides. Gary proceeds to open a guitar case.] Leslie West [of Mountain] gave me this guitar, and it says, "To Gary, for being a friend." At the time, he said to me, "If you don't learn how to play it, I'm taking it back in 6 months." That was 21 years ago. But it turned out to be unbelievably difficult to play — it had a weird tuning — so I never learned how. I even went to Dan's Chelsea Guitars on 23rd Street and bought an amp for it for 50 bucks. Didn't use it, but we moved it from house to house. My son saw it, and he asked, "Can we try it?" I said, "It doesn't work." But I plugged it in, and the thing worked! I couldn't believe it. Now he plays guitar with that amp. He likes it.
What's in this stack of boxes?
You guys should do an article called, "The Dumb Shit in Gary's Basement." [both laugh] These boxes hold all of the tapes from Howard's old E! show. When the show started, I couldn't get it on my local cable system in Manhattan, so I worked out a deal where E! had to send the tapes every week to certain people, and I got on that list. But the sound was crappy really early on because they were getting it from the radio feed.
When we moved, I promised my wife Mary that I'd go through them. She asked, "How many times have you even watched one of them?" Answer: "Never."
They're all labeled. I'm going to get a master list and go through them. There's probably 1,000 tapes. I'll keep 100, put them in other boxes, and throw the rest away.
Are you enjoying your foray into high-end gear?
I am. I'm enjoying the equipment now, but I would have loved having it back when I was 20.
What's the best thing about it?
When you get to do something you love and choose all the gear you really want, it's fun. There isn't anything bad about it.
Check out the A/V installation in Gary's new house.
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