On his second day back from vacation, Howard Stern is sounding increasingly frustrated with the reality of the consequences from the FCC's indecency crackdown. "The business has changed," he decried this morning moments before unleashing on his favorite whipping boy, WXRK/New York GM Tom Chiusano, about the restrictions being placed on his show and the atmosphere that he is currently working in.

"I'm not who I am," Stern declared. "You are bleeping who I am. I've got Dead Air Dave bleeping me. I've got you hovering and yelling at people. You're lecturing my staff and making everyone nuts. I can't even do damage control with what you are up to. When you lecture people and walk around and create an environment where people are scared, I can't get creativity out of that. You're as bad as the FCC."

"You may not believe this, but I don't like this anymore than you do," Chiasano, who was in the studio to discuss a scheduled sitdown between Stern and Viacom COO Mel Karmazin about last week's Infinity indecency edict, said in his defense. Stern alleged the meeting was forced upon him at the behest of the K-Rock GM. The sitdown with Karmazin was presumably called off when Stern scheduled a meeting with Chiasano for later this week.

When The Howard Stern Show returned to live action yesterday (2/23) after a week of vacation, Stern admitted he had yet to hear firsthand from Karmazin about last week's indecency edict imposed upon Infinity radio stations. He went on to say it isn't fair that he could lose his job because the FCC thinks something is wrong with his show's content. The notion that under Karmazin's edict, PDs and GMs will be held accountable for their air talents' actions didn't sit well with Stern either, though he did joke that the prospect of getting Chiasano axed could be worth it.  

Also, amidst all the talk about Stuttering John's surprise announcement that he's exiting for a gig on the Tonight Show, Stern also found out that his show is now on four separate delays for a total of 90 seconds.