Opie and Anthony

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Opie (Gregg Hughes, May 23 1963 - ) and Anthony (Anthony Cumia, April 26 1961 - ) are the hosts of the radio program The Opie and Anthony Show. The show is based in New York City and airs on XM Satellite Radio channel 202, as well as Sirius channel XM197, several terrestrial radio stations, and DirecTV. The show was previously on WNEW-FM in New York and WAAF-FM in Boston (whom they obsessively insult) previous to that.

Opie and Anthony's rude and crude style of entertainment (which many listeners support nonetheless) has earned them the sobriquet of "shock jocks." Regular guests to their show include Robert Kelly, Patrice Oneal, Louis C.K., Bill Burr, and Rich Vos. On the show, Anthony is known for his impressions of people such as Andrew Dice Clay, Tom Brokaw, Ronald Reagan, Mike Tyson and Tony Danza. Their style and jokes target the males in the 18-35 age range, although they have broken both constraints and have taken over in markets when syndicated and the city already had a show geared toward that style.

Contents

History

The Early Years - Long Island and Boston

The origins of the current Opie and Anthony show date back to when Opie was a disc jockey on radio station WBAB on Long Island. In 1994, Opie held a song parody contest and was personally handed an entry by Brother Joe. The entry featured Joe's brother Anthony singing "Gonna 'Lectric Shock O.J." (a parody of "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding). The song was one of many attempts Anthony made to get out of his miserable job at Apollo Air Conditioning, and this one did the trick. On September 14, 1994, Anthony made his first appearance on The Opie Show (O&A have admitted their embarassment at their first on-air appearance together, due to Anthony's over-eagerness to be on the radio, and Opie's general hackiness at this point in his career). Opie knew he and Anthony had some chemistry together, and when the opportunity arose to do a radio show in Boston, Opie and Anthony officially became a radio team.

On March 13, 1995, Opie and Anthony began airing on WAAF in Boston. It was while they were on WAAF that O&A created some of their most famous bits, such as Butt Plug, 100 Grand, and their legacy - WOW, aka Whip 'em Out Wednesday, where women were invited to show their breasts to anyone with a "WOW" on their car (via an official WOW sticker, or just by having the word "WOW" on their car somewhere). O&A began to develop a fan following, and soon radio executives in New York City took notice. According to Opie, the pair were being courted to come to New York to do radio, but had to get out of Boston to do so. The solution - pull an April Fool's Day Prank where they would tell everybody that Boston's Mayor Menino was killed in a car accident. Although O&A admitted that the bit was way over the top, it caused a firestorm of controversy, and led to O&A being kicked off the air in April, 1998.

WNEW - O&A Version 2.0

On June 25, 1998, O&A officially began their New York radio careers on legendary rock station WNEW. At the time, 'NEW was in a downward spiral, and the other jocks did not take kindly to them. On their first shows, O&A mentioned several jocks wishing them well, but in reality the jocks were leaving them hate messages. The only jock who was supposedly nice to them was Scott Muni. O&A seemed to tone down their behavior during these early shows and tried to fit in at the station, but the real O&A eventually emerged and they began showing contempt for what the station had now become. They would make fun of the records they were playing and bash their fellow DJs. One of them, Carol Miller, confronted them on the air about their behavior (looking back, O&A said they respect the fact that Carol stood up to them instead of trashing them behind their backs like the other DJs did, and bear no animosity toward her). In September of 1999, WNEW finally ended its long career as a rock station and switched to a talk format; O&A got the last laugh.

Several key elements of the show first took place during the WNEW years. O&A often had comedians appear on the show to hang out and riff with them, many of whom became good friends with the duo. One of those comedians, Jim Norton, became so popular with O&A and with the fans that he became the regular co-host by the end of their tenure at the station. O&A also began their friendship with radio duo Ron and Fez, and the two teams would often appear together on each other's shows (these were known as AFRO shows - AFRO being an acronym of the initials of Anthony, Fez, Ron, and Opie). Several key staff members joined the show at this time, including Steve C (whose FoundryMusic.com website became O&A's official homepage), Rick Delgado, Ben Sparks, and Stinky.

It was during the WNEW years that Opie and Anthony also began their long-running rivalry with fellow radio host Howard Stern - a rivalry that caused problems with their bosses at Infinity Broadcasting, since both Stern and O&A were employed by the company. Stern, who had a good friendship with Infinity President Mel Karmazin, was so jealous of O&A and so outraged by their goofing on him that he had Mel put a gag order on them so they could not talk about Howard on the air, or else they would lose their jobs.

As O&A became more and more popular, syndication became a goal they wanted to achieve. This finally happened in the summer of 2001, when they became syndicated to several stations including Philadelphia's WYSP, Washington DC's WJFK, and WBCN in Boston - a rival of their former home WAAF. O&A also began to spin out of control with their increasingly controversial bits. The Voyeur Bus incident in November, 2000 led to arrests. Their annual Sex for Sam bit led to the firing of show staff member Psycho Mark. Their T&A with O&A event in Buffalo, NY, although not broadcast on the radio, led to FCC complaints. It was this last bit that nearly led to their firing, but an even more infamous incident that took place on August 15, 2002 was the one that sealed their fate.

On August 15, Sex for Sam 3, a contest in which couples had sex in public places in order to win an opportunity to tour the Sam Adams beer brewery, took place. During this particular contest, O&A joked that a church would be one of the locations where couples could score points. One couple attempted to do this at St. Patrick's Cathedral. When their spotter, comedian Paul Mercurio, called O&A and told them what was happening, they told Paul to get them out of there. Paul, however, was interested in making a name for himself and allowed the couple to continue what they were doing. Eventually police became involved, and the couple were arrested. The incident became big news and the story spread across the country. Many were outraged at what happened; William Donohue, head of a group named the Catholic League, threatened to have WNEW's broadcast license pulled if O&A weren't disciplined. The next day, O&A broadcast their last official show on WNEW. The following week, The Opie and Anthony Show was cancelled.

XM, and the Return to Terrestrial Radio

Despite the cancellation of their show, Opie and Anthony weren't officially fired. They were still bound to their Infinity contract, and the duo were still paid by the company during their time off the air. However, the contract had a non-compete clause which forbade them from working at another job for over two years. During that time, there was much speculation about O&A's future. In August, 2004, at the time the Infinity contract expired, the pair signed with XM Satellite Radio and started broadcasting their show again on October 4th of the same year. Jim Norton, Steve C, and Ben Sparks continued working with O&A at XM, and it was there that E-Rock was first brought on as a producer. Also, several interns (Than, Danny, Travis, Derek, and later Sam) impressed O&A so much that they became full-time members of the show staff.

At first, the duo were only available on a premium channel because of XM's initial concern at hiring the controversial pair, but listenership was high enough that in April, 2005 the show was allowed to be a part of the regular subscription service. On XM Satellite Radio, O&A were no longer bound by FCC regulations regarding language and content; thus, politically incorrect humor became common on their show.

Although O&A matured a bit since their 'NEW days, they still managed to generate controversy. One show, commonly referred to as the "show we can't talk about", nearly got them fired mere weeks after starting on XM. Their Assault on the Media competition, where O&A fans (nicknamed the Pests) were asked to disrupt live news broadcasts, led to a news reporter getting injured. Still, the show began to rebuild its audience, and eventually their former company, Infinity (now known as CBS Radio), was looking to bring them back.

In 2006, Howard Stern abandoned terrestrial radio in order to broadcast his show on XM competitor Sirius. This left a void that needed to be filled at the stations Howard used to broadcast from. Some of these stations replaced Howard with David Lee Roth, a move that proved to be a disaster ratings-wise. CBS Radio had to do something, so they brought back O&A to try to save their company. As of April 26, 2006, O&A were officially back on terrestrial radio. In a deal with both CBS and XM, the show was now airing nationwide on both formats from 6-9 AM ET, and then exclusively on XM from 9 AM-12 PM ET. O&A have said that this is the deal Howard should have made.

The Future

With XM and Sirius now planning a merger, there was much speculation on what would happen to The Opie and Anthony Show. Their former boss Mel Karmazin is now the CEO of Sirius and is expected to take over the reins of the combined company. With Howard still broadcasting his show, and his friendship with Mel still intact, it was believed that O&A would not have a place at the merged company, or would be silenced like they were during the WNEW days.

In 2007, the duo ended up getting suspended from XM for 30 days because of comments made by a guest named Homeless Charlie. It is believed that the merger was what led to this action. O&A also faced problems with the exit of Eric Logan from XM (since he befriended O&A and became a key ally in their dealings with the company), and with the terrestrial portion of their show, due to ridiculous censorship by their bosses and being dropped by key affiliates. O&A's contract was set to expire at the end of September, 2008, but for the time being it has been renewed, and as of September 30, their show became available on Sirius, on channel XM197.

As O&A have said time and time again, they always win in the end.

See Also

To get up to speed on The Opie and Anthony Show, the following pages are recommended:

External Links

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