At NBC he presented his long held belief that there was a format "between" dreary ballads and hard rock. The format would feature Current adult oriented hits by artists such as Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand and oldies for pace by the Beatles, Beach Boys and MOTOWN. The name of the format became ADULT CONTEMPORARY.

After NBC he lead the ABC Radio networks for several years before becoming a sought after consultant. He worked on site at Sirius Satellite radio for eight years and made the invitation to HOWARD STERN to come to the new medium.

Nine years ago, Chris Oliviero EVP of Programming for CBS asked Sterling to host a talk show once again. Sterling on Sundays was launched.