ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Shock jock Howard Stern is famous for his wild radio show, but the death of a local fan had him showing his softer side.

Lonny Heckman loved Howard Stern and he loved writing songs; so he wrote a song for Stern and his fiancée, Beth, for their wedding, and sent it to Stern.

---

---

"When I See Beth Smiling" is a sweet song that his idol, Howard Stern, played on his radio show one day:

"He comes running down. He's like 'Mom, you got to hear this. Oh my gosh. Come up. You've got to hear this,' " Linda Suranofsky, Heckman’s mother, said.

The only catch was that Stern kind of hated the song; he thought it was sappy. But then the king of all media heard the version that Tommy Shaw, formerly of Styx, and Jack Blades of Night Ranger, now together as Shaw Blades, did of "When I See Beth Smiling" as a goof, Stern liked the song a whole lot more, so did everyone else.

"Since then, it seems like every night someone’s yelling out of the audience, 'Play ‘When I See Beth Smiling,'" Jack Blades said.

An aspiring songwriter from Northampton now had his song.

Heckman wasn't in great health, but he was determined to go to the Crocodile Rock Café in Allentown to hear Shaw Blades, he hoped, play his song.

"This is what he wanted. He waited his whole life for this. He was so excited that all he thought of was Nov. 29 he was going to the concert," a family member said.

But early Tuesday morning, Heckman died of a pulmonary embolism. You can bet he would have loved the fact that his entire family went to the concert, where they met with Shaw and Blades. They received a signed guitar on stage and the crowd honored Heckman with chants of “Lonny! Lonny!” and then his family heard his greatest, and only, hit.

"The thing that's cool about it is he took his shot. He wrote a song and he took a shot. How many people listen to Howard Stern? How many people would love to do this, and he did it!" Shaw said. "There's kind of a nice little message for all of us to never give up on your dreams like that and if you're going to dream, dream big."

"This is a dream come true, and I wish he could be here to enjoy it," Suranofsky said.