a sexual and religious nature. Within his first month at the station, Stern was suspended for several days for a controversial segment known as "Virgin Mary Kong." The skit featured a new video game by God in which a group of men chase the Virgin Mary around a singles bar in Jerusalem. In February 1983, comedian Jackie Martling was hired to make weekly appearances as a comedy writer. With his on-the-fly style, he provided jokes for such show bits like "Stump the Jokeman" and "The Match Game". Martling assumed his role full-time in August 1986 when he replaced Al Rosenberg, a comedian and writer at WNBC who could no longer commute from Washington, D.C. Also hired was Gary Dell'Abate of the station's traffic department, who started as the show's assistant in September 1984 and went on to become executive producer. Stern continued to break out of the station's strict format. He had a naked woman on the show for the first time and attempted to make another reach orgasm through her radio speaker, both of which were reenacted in his film Private Parts (1997). The Arbitron ratings released in 1984 showed an increase in listeners to Stern's show. Having moved shifts to 3–7 pm, he attracted audience shares of 3.8%, 4.2%, and 4.6% that year. The show was popular among males aged between 18 and 34, a highly-marketable demographic for advertisers. Stern acquired a 5.7% share in 1985, the highest rating at the station in four years, pushing the station's ranking in afternoons from eleventh to first place in three years. Among the success, tension between management and Stern grew further. On September 30, 1985, the show was cancelled due to what management termed as "conceptual differences" between themselves and Stern regarding his show. "Over the course of time, we made a very conscious effort to make Stern aware that certain elements of the program should be changed", said program director John Hayes, whom Stern had nicknamed "The Incubus." "I don't think it's appropriate to say what those specifics were." In 1992, Stern believed that Thornton Bradshaw, at the time chairman of RCA which then owned WNBC, was driving in his limousine having heard his "Bestiality Dial-a-Date" segment and ordered his firing. Later, NBC chairman Grant Tinker admitted that it was his decision, after corporate communications director Bob Rukeyser alerted him about the risqué material on Stern's show. 1985–1994: WXRK