Stern vs. DeBella

FROM THE MOMENT Howard Stern signed on at WYSP-FM, he made then-WMMR-FM "Morning Zoo" host John DeBella Public Enemy No. 1. For years, Stern never missed a chance to insult DeBella, both professionally (his unmerciful lampooning of the "Morning Zoo" format) and personally (he frequently described DeBella as "ugly" and referred to him derisively as "Baldy").

All of this culminated with Stern's 1990 "funeral" for DeBella outside the latter's Rittenhouse Square studio once he had toppled DeBella from his long-held perch as the market's most popular morning-show host.

So what brought on Stern's wrath? What fed his obvious contempt for DeBella for so long? The answer can be found in Miss America, Stern's 1995 sequel to his best-selling autobiography, Private Parts.

"I needed a reason to hate him . . . on a personal level," wrote Stern. "I found my reason in Gary [Dell'Abate], my producer. Gary had once worked with DeBella at WLIR in Long Island. At the time, DeBella was the star disc jockey and Gary was a lowly intern. Gary told me that DeBella was so arrogant that the interns, as part of their standard orientation, had been told not to talk to DeBella in the halls. They were told they weren't even allowed to look him in the eye. That was enough to get me going. Who the f--- did this arrogant p---- think he was?"

But in a 1995 interview with the Daily News, DeBella, who now does the morning show on WMGK-FM (102.9), claimed innocence. "That must have been written before I appeared on his show [last year] and we cleared things up," said DeBella. "On that show I asked Gary exactly who had said they shouldn't talk to me, and he admitted it was just the woman in charge of interns. I never knew about that order . . . and always wondered why they seemed to hate me."

- Chuck Darrow