I love Howard Stern. His show was great when he was on terrestrial radio, but now that he’s on Sirius, it’s only gotten better. And contrary to what the haters may believe, there is not more nudity or swearing. The dialogue is fantastic. He covers a range of topics—everything from politics and current events to reality tv and anything else in between. (In case you’re wondering, I’ve never seen America’s Got Talent, but the show just earned itself a new viewer!) And his celebrity interviews? Genius. Just search on YouTube for Lady Gaga singing Edge of Glory on his show.

So what does Howard Stern have to do with content marketing?

Well, as the self-proclaimed King of All Media, this man knows how to work his content. As I was driving to work one morning listening to the show, he had a member of his news crew come in to report the latest Stern show news. After his update, Howard treated a caller to a game where they had to guess if one of his quirkier guests (affectionately known as Wack Packers) could answer several questions correctly. It then dawned on me—Howard is reimagining his content!

My mind immediately went to Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman’s book Content Rules. (Props to them for reintroducing such a great word as reimagining.) Content Rules is essentially a roadmap of ways to take a piece of content and spin it into additional fresh, relevant chunks for your audience: a concept Howard has been doing for more than 25 years!

Let’s look at some examples.

The Interview that Keeps on Giving

As Howard is interviewing a guest, a photo is tweeted out, along with updates about what the guest is talking about. Photos are posted to the Howard Stern website, along with a recap of the entire show for that day. The Howard 100 news team may even score an additional interview with the same guest and use those soundbites as lead-ins to a bigger story. Then there’s Howard TV, which is filming the interview and posting clips on YouTube and/or Twitter. But their job isn’t done because the entire interview be aired on Howard TV, a subscription-only service.

You also can’t forget the world outside of the Stern show. It’s pretty typical to see media outlets all over the world talking about the guest and using Howard’s interview for their own reporting purposes. And that’s just one guest!

Recycling Old Shows

As I stated earlier, Howard’s been doing this for more than 25 years—and he’s got tapes of his shows to prove it. Rather than letting those tapes sit stagnant in storage, the show will air old episodes on days when the team is off in new and interesting ways using themes such as “This Day in Howard History” or “Mastertape Theatre.” The updated topics and ways to repurpose old shows are never-ending!

Web Content, the Wrap Up Show and Spinoffs

Visit the Howard Stern website and you’ll find tons of content in various forms. A quick poll area, photos from that week’s main topics, new contests calling for entries, the latest news…you get the idea. It all relates back to the content being presented on that weeks’ worth of shows.

Following every show is the Wrap Up Show, where various Howard Stern team members recap highlights from the previous 3 or so hours and fans get to call in to voice their opinions. Some of these fans become regulars and have been known to get their own radio show, even if it’s once a week airing at midnight (Riley Martin, anyone?)

Here’s my point. Whether you like the man or not, there’s no denying he’s got his content marketing down to a science. While I believe there’s only one King of All Media, as marketers, we can at least strive to be in his court.