Now, I never went to radio school, but I'm pretty sure that, if I had, I'd have been taught at some point that when Howard Stern starts saying one of your on-air stunts went "too far", then you've definitely crossed some sort of acceptability line.

The US shock jock last week discussed Steve Penk's previously reported playing of Van Halen's 'Jump' on his Manchester-based Revolution Radio station on the morning that the biggest local news story was the delays on the M60 where a suicidal woman was threatening to throw herself off a bridge. A listener had requested the song, but it was Penk himself who chose to play it.

When someone speculated that the woman, who did indeed jump (albeit, only incurring minor injuries in the process), might have done so after hearing Penk's show on a passing car stereo, the DJ responded thus: "If, as has been suggested, the woman jumped because she heard it from a passing car radio that's unfortunate. But I don't regret playing it for a minute".

As one UK mental health charity, Mind, said it would complain about the incident to media regulator OfCom, Stern discussed the stunt on his Sirius XM radio show last week. Stern, of course, is no stranger to controversial on-air antics and media/listener/regulator outrage.

It would be wrong to say that Stern and co-host Robin Quivers are especially judgemental about the 'Jump' incident, and at times they seem sympathetic towards a fellow radio DJ in trouble for his on-air antics (especially given that they seem to think Penk had been fired, which, of course, he has not, him owning Revolution Radio). But Stern did also imply some sympathy for the mental health charities who have criticised Penk, concluding that the stunt was "kinda lame really".