The following story was submitted by a fan of The Howard Stern Show who wanted to share their ''Brush with Greatness'' with others.

Submitted by: Brian Lombard - 10/22/00

The story...

As a lifelong resident of the Washington DC area, I had the privilege of listening to Howard, Fred, and Robin during the early years of their career, when they were working at DC101. My brother and I listened to them every morning, even though we were only 10 and 13 at the time.

Howard did a lot of weird contests. One morning, he announced that whoever could sing the entire theme to "Love Boat" would win a couple of records (remember those?) I had the theme on tape, so we dialed like crazy, and actually got through. While on hold, we played the tape over and over, learning it word for word. Next thing we know, my brother's on the air singing to Howard. He got it right. My brother told Howard that we lived in Gaithersburg (a Maryland suburb). Howard had never heard of it, and asked GAY-thersburg? He then said he really knew where it was, since he came over every morning after work and banged our mother. We had a prize waiting for us at the station, so we planned it so we could pick it up at 10:00, hoping to meet Howard as his shift ended.

We waited about a month until there was a school holiday, and our father took us down to pick up the prize. When we arrived, we asked the receptionist if we could actually meet Howard. She said sure, no problem. So we waited. 10:00 came, and this very tall, skinny, goofy looking guy came out of the studio. The receptionist introduced us. It was Fred. Remember the scene in "Private Parts" when Fred gets off the bus in DC? That's exactly how he looked. He had on that goofy hat that he wore throughout the movie.

At the time, Fred was known as "Earthdog Fred." Our father, proving that he could embarrass us in any situation, called him "Maddog Fred." He was very quiet, didn't say anything, but we immediately corrected the old man. We asked Fred if Howard would be out, and he told us that Howard had already left. Then Fred left, so we said goodbye.

Well, we couldn't leave, since they hadn't produced our prizes yet. After a few minutes, a guy with curly dark hair, a moustache, and a big nose stuck his head in the lobby, and asked the receptionist a question. When we heard the voice we knew right away - it was Howard. We called him by name, and told him who we were. He seemed kinda shy, so he ducked out. We didn't care. We'd seen him in person, and that was all we really wanted.