Shock Jock

Lets face it, if you ran out into the street and shouted, at the top of your voice...

"And by the way I believe Hitler was right!"

...you'd probably get a lot of attention.^[1] And in radio, a lot of attention means a lot of listeners. And a lot of revenue.

The Shock Jock is just that; he's out to shock people by behaving in the most offensive manner possible. In some ways, these people are professional, live-action trolls; by saying what they do, they attract attention and thus get good ratings.

For the moment, Real Life examples are allowed. Keep it civil.

Examples of Shock Jock include:

Comic Books

• Livewire of The DCU was a shock jock before she got her actual Shock and Awe powers. She still sometimes shows traces of her former career.

Film

• Jack (Jeff Bridges) is this at the beginning of The Fisher King. His comments prompt a gunman to open fire in a restaurant, kicking off the plot and driving him out of the business.
• Eric Bogosian in Talk Radio. Play and film. Kindasortamaybelooselybased on Howard Stern. Kinda.

Live Action Television

• Law and Order SVU had a character who would quite literally do anything for ratings, up to and including glorifying a rapist.
• The firm on Ally McBeal sued a Stern-esque jock. Ally was disgusted, not with the man, but the way the firm handled his case, so by way of apology she went on his show and put on a giggling bimbo act.
• One of the many, many murderers on Monk was a shock jock, who used his show and a dog trained to interpret his new catchphrase as a command to indirectly murder his wife. Since he was on the air when her death occurred he had a near-perfect alibi.

Western Animation

• Howard Stern (depicted as a giant bird) was skewered in an Animaniacs short where the Warners visited his radio show, Hilarity Ensued.
• The Simpsons: To improve his image, Mr. Burns goes on a shock jock's radio show and admits that as a child he enjoyed Having a Gay Old Time.

Real Life

• Howard Stern probably the greatest of all time. He got his big break by getting a job at WNBC in New York as the afternoon jock to Don Imus' morning jock. Their subsequent feud helped drive his audience to its peak, as did his habit of pushing the boundaries even further than Imus did. After one too many clashes with the FCC, Howard went on to Sirus to be able to say what he wanted. He is the record holder for the most fined host.
• Opie and Anthony fit the mold, though they have not assumed the label
• Don Imus was considered the first radio shockjock but like mentioned above had worked with Howard Stern for a short time until they got their own shows and howard was fired. Don was fired in 2007 for racial comments toward the Rutgers basketball team but re hired with other big names
• Rush Limbaugh is on the borderline even though he is a political talk show host. A first time listener may mistake him for this. He has been in the news for making controversial comments as well.
• Radio listeners from Oop North will recall the great James Stannage with affection and pleasure. Between the introduction of local commercial radio in 1974 and today he has told it like it is on quite a few stations, been fined and sacked by the regulators several times and displayed the requisite degree of no patience for idiots all that time. He has nearly forty years of loyal fans behind him. All you need to know is that in the fortnight following the death of Princess Diana, his radio station (Manchester Key 103) capitulated straight away, took him off air and sent him on compulsory holiday for fear of the things he might say.

1. ↑ And probably nominated for office by the Republican Party.