Remembering Former Stern Show Writer and Performer Al Rosenberg

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Al Rosenberg, the beloved former Stern Show writer and performer whose work made a lasting impression during the WNBC days, has died. He was 78.

On Wednesday, Howard remembered discovering Al — who first worked as a bondsman before finding his calling in radio — when he worked on WNBC’s Imus in the Morning. “Al was just a decent guy, and he would talk to me and say, ‘Hey, I love your show,’” Howard said before referencing that infamously contentious period. “I needed a few pats on the back from anybody who worked there at that time because you didn’t get many.”

“The man was a saint,” Fred Norris echoed. “We were in a den of shit and Al was the only [one] who came up to us and spoke to us like we were human beings. He showed us respect, he showed us love, and I swear to God … I never heard him say a bad word about anybody — the guy didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

When Imus restructured his show, Al moved over to the Stern Show, and the rest was history.

“He would sit in on our show and all of a sudden he’d do a voice in the background and yell something out and it was pretty funny,’” Howard remarked of the change. “I was like, ‘Hmm, this feels good.’”

“He moved right in — it was a smoothe transition,” co-host Robin Quivers added. “He was a sweetheart.”

In later years, Al was hired to work on Howard’s Channel 9 show, where he portrayed Elizbaeth Taylor and other characters.

Executive Producer Gary Dell’Abate also spoke warmly of Al, who helped land Gary the job he holds to this day. “He was the sweetest guy,” he recalled. “Every Friday, Al would buy a pizza … he would put his arm around me, and he would go, ‘Don’t worry kid, I got you covered today’ … because he knew I was broke.”