They Call Me Baba Booey, Gary DellAbate
They Call Me Baba Booey, Gary DellAbate
9 Rating(s)
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.25
Club: $8.75

They Call Me Baba Booey

Author: Gary Dell'Abate, Chad Millman

Narrator: Gary Dell'Abate

Unabridged: 7 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/02/2010


Synopsis

One of pop culture’s great enduring unsung heroes: Gary Dell’Abate, Howard Stern Show producer, miracle worker, professional good sport, and servant to the King of All Media, for the first time tells the story of his early years and reveals how his chaotic childhood and early obsessions prepared him for life at the center of the greatest show on earth.
 
Baba Booey! Baba Booey! It was a slip of the tongue—that unfortunately was heard by a few million listeners—but in that split second a nickname, a persona, a rallying cry, and a phenomenon was born. Some would say it was the moment Gary Dell’Abate, the long-suffering heroic producer of The Howard Stern Show, for better or worse, finally came into his own. In They Call Me Baba Booey, Dell’Abate explains how his early life was the perfect training ground for the day-to-day chaos that comes with producing the most popular radio show on earth.

Growing up on Long Island in the 1970s, the youngest of three boys born to a clinically depressed mother, Gary learned how to fend for himself when under attack.  Obsessed with music, he listened with religious intensity to Casey Kasem's Top 40 every Sunday morning, compulsively bought 45s of his favorite songs, and nerdily copied the lyrics into a notebook. Music became an ordering principle to his life, even as the chaos at home got out of hand. Dell’Abate’s memoir sketches the trajectory from the obsessive pop-music trivia buff to the man in the beekeeper’s mask who handily defeats his opponents playing “Stump the Booey.” We learn about the memorable moments in his life that taught him to endure epic bouts of humiliation and get his unique perspective on some of his favorite Stern show episodes—such as the day he nearly killed the Mets mascot while throwing out the first pitch, or the time his mother called Howard’s mother and demanded an apology.

Hilarious, painful, and eye-opening, it’s Gary as you’ve never seen him before, telling a story that even Stern show insiders can’t begin to imagine.

About The Author

Gary Dell’Abate is the producer of The Howard Stern Show and co-hosts The Wrap-Up Show on Sirius XM Radio. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons, Jackson and Lucas, and live in Connecticut.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Bets on 2010-11-28 08:48:55

11/28/2010 Howard Stern Fans are waiting to find out if the show will continue on Sirius into 2011 as I write this review. Gary Dell'Abate dellabata may not have been the best choice to read 'They Call Me Baba Booey', he does not put ANY emotion into the reading of this book. If you are not a fan of The Howard Stern Show you may not understand a lot of this book or care. I thought this was going to be a real autobiography, it is not, there is no depth or detail, it is a short story. Gary does not kiss and tell about The Howard Stern Show. He just tells a few stories about things that have happened to him due to his job with or because of The Howard Stern Show. Hence the title of the book. The chapters are not in chronological order. Gary has a list of songs he wants to have with him on a desert island instead of a deserted island. The song lists are odd. The list do not provide any nformation and do nothing to enhance the book. At the end of the chapters Gary very briefly speaks with a person in the story. I liked not loved the book and there just wasn't enough of it. It was so brief it was maddening! This is the kind of a book you get from booksfree.com or the library. Only a hardcore Howard Stern Fan will want to own a copy of this book and there are enough of them to put this book on the bestseller list. Congratulations Baba Booey I hope you make a lot of money, because that is the only reason anyone writes a book like this.

Goodreads review by Khris on March 09, 2011

So I've lived in the city for almost five years now and have read probably hundreds of books on the subway, and how many times have people asked me what I was reading or commented on what I was reading??? ZERO times. Soooo here I am with the Baba Booey book, trying to be oh so discreet about it beca......more

Goodreads review by Tony on November 26, 2011

Pulls up short. And understandably so. No need to read this unless you're a Howard Stern fan. So when Dell'Abate glosses over his relationship with Howard, professionally and personally, it's disappointing. But, again, I understand why. The show is still a success and Howard is still his boss. Not m......more

Goodreads review by Cynthia on February 15, 2011

So one day around ten years ago, I got into the car for a half-hour drive. My husband had been in the car before me, and the radio was tuned to Howard Stern. I don't think I'd listened to the show but once or twice, and only for a few minutes each time. Anyway, it was these random guys commenting on......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on December 10, 2010

There is no way anyone who is not a Howard Stern fan would care at all about this book. So why the four stars? Two reason: I AM a Stern fan, and I love Gary, and this book is the most Gary. More importantly, Gary has made no secret of his love of audiobooks on the show, and it shows in this producti......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on December 06, 2022

Pretty average autobiography. Nothing more, nothing less......more


Quotes

“Hilarious, sincere, and wrenching.”—GQ

“Equal parts amazing and amusing . . . Fans will eat up the mortifying moments of [Dell’Abate’s] twenty-seven-year ride with the wildly popular and influential Stern show. . . . But it is the stories of extreme family dysfunction that give the book surprising heart.”—NJ.com

“Dell’Abate [has] pulled back the curtain [and his fans] will be pleasantly surprised.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Gary’s chronicle of how he developed the skills to survive a household shaken by both mental illness and the seismic shifts of the sixties, and of how he’s applied those skills to accommodate Howard and the gang, is nothing less than fascinating.”—Dr. Drew Pinsky
 
“Following the simple plan outlined in this book, I lost fifteen pounds and became a happier wife and better mother.”—Howard Stern
 
“If you think your family is nuts, wait until you read this story.”—Joan Rivers