Federal Communications Commission fines of The Howard Stern Show

Between 1990 and 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued fines totaling $2.5 million to radio licensees for airing material from The Howard Stern Show that it deemed indecent, the highest total associated with any American radio program. In its 1978 landmark decision in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, the Supreme Court of the United States established the framework under which broadcasters could be sanctioned for indecent material, including the "seven dirty words" popularized by comedian George Carlin. The FCC had received complaints about Howard Stern as early as 1981, but its authority at the time was more limited, and no enforcement action followed.

The FCC broadened its indecency standard in 1987 after investigating broadcasts of Stern's show. In 1990, Infinity Broadcasting, owner of Stern's flagship station WXRK and several of his syndication affiliates, received its first fine. Two penalties issued in 1992, worth $105,000 and $600,000, were then the largest indecency fines the agency had imposed on any broadcaster. Additional findings brought the total to nearly $2 million by the end of 1994. A 1995 settlement between Infinity and the FCC included a $1.715 million payment to resolve all outstanding indecency cases.

In 2004, the post-Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy crackdown on broadcast indecency led to two further fines based on earlier broadcasts. Stern then announced that he would leave terrestrial radio for Sirius Satellite Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service that was not subject to the FCC's broadcast indecency rules. The Howard Stern Show aired for the last time on AM and FM radio on December 16, 2005.