Anthony Cumia fired

[Gusington]

^I am now old enough to think that is the best, simplest way to go :)

[BanzaiCat]

My last car, a 2004 Volvo, had a cassette player/CD player in it. I played some old Monty Python cassettes I still have. Now that I have no cassette player I refuse to give up these cassettes...lol.

[BanzaiCat]

Looks like they're still playing "Best Of" content this morning, which I know is going to disappoint a lot of folks judging from the Reddit news feed. I was also looking forward to hopefully getting some kind of explanation or indication of where the show will be going.

I imagine they're in damage control mode right now and are trying to count how many losses they've experienced (one source I found says they've lost 55 million in revenue from cancelled subscriptions, which seems a lot as they're under $20 a month, but many people I saw had two, three subscriptions and cancelled them all...so who knows).

It's highly ironic, though, that Howard Stern (whom has made plenty of racially-fueled jokes over his overextended career, including blackface) and Jaime Foxx (whom is a big-mouthed racist himself - "I kill all the white people in the movie; how great is that?"), among many others, are allowed to continue with business as usual while they fire Cumia over "racism" in his Twitter feed that does not exist.

Oh, and SiriusXM's Facebook page has been loaded with hilarity for the last several days.

[BanzaiCat]

Opie announced on his Twitter thread that they had a "long talk" with SXM on Tuesday and are looking to start the show back up on Monday morning...with him and Norton. Neither will break their contract (smart move), even though they support Ant all the way.

Yeah, ain't no way Ant is going to be hurting; I think he's going to evolve his Live From The Compound show. Only thing is, Ant by himself, I don't know if he can carry it. O&A is hilarious because the three of them play off each other so well. Opie was usually the voice of reason, Norton sent zingers in from far, far left field, and Ant was just an ass overall (but a humorous one). Without Ant, Opie and Norton aren't going to be nearly as funny. Without Opie and Norton, I can't imagine Ant will be, either. I haven't seen his Live From The Compound show, so I could certainly be wrong.

[Gusington]

Jim Norton could carry a show by himself. And he is a rather dashing looking gentleman (I resemble him strongly)

[mirth]

So he has trouble seeing above the dashboard when he drives too?

[bayonetbrant]

So he has trouble seeing above the dashboard when he drives too?

That's not fair.  Gus can see over the dashboard just fine...



... as long as someone else is working the pedals.  >:D

[BanzaiCat]

Jim Norton could carry a show by himself. And he is a rather dashing looking gentleman (I resemble him strongly)

Norton is a good comedian in his own right, but the dynamics of these three together enhances all of their talent for humor significantly. Hearing Jim belly-laugh when Anthony says something totally off the wall, or hearing Norton pull an 'Uncle Paul' comment and causing even Anthony to cringe...they're all entertaining, but much more so when in the same room.

[BanzaiCat]

Well, Opie and Norton haven't missed many beats in continuing the show. From their broadcast at the beginning of the week, Opie indicated what a "shitty meeting" they had last week with SXM management. You could hear the depression in their voices as they talked about it, even going so far as to say had that happened on any other day other than a holiday weekend, they'd all be in the studio the next day with Ant getting mercilessly teased for getting beaten up by a woman...and the show would have gone on.

Now labeled "SiriusXM Talk," I'm impressed at how well the two are continuing on this channel. They've had some great guests on this week (Ricky Gervais was on yesterday, and he's always hilarious on this show). They've moved from the social commentary and are filling more time with guest discussions, but that's understandable, especially considering a lot of the people on the air with them no doubt have contracts with SXM for certain amounts of air time on this show.

Meanwhile, Anthony Cumia is feeling very little pain. I've followed his tweets over the last few weeks and he's getting his home studio prepped to start his own show (www.anthonycumia.com). He's going to have a broadcast Monday through Thursday, 3-5pm EST, and charge 6.99 a month to subscribers. Judging from the number of people that cancelled their subscriptions and how many signed the online petition to give him his job back, I'd say he'd EASILY have 10,000 subscribers. So this guy is going to pull in at least 70,000 dollars a month for 8 hours a week on air.

Granted, there's several hours of prep for each on air hour of broadcasting, but still...holy shit. Cha-chiiiiiing.

I'm not sure if I'm going to subscribe or not; I might wait to see what happens with its popularity, and if it's a hit, I might get on board.

[GDS_Starfury]

I think we could pull off a radio chat show quite easily.

[BanzaiCat]

With the banter hereabouts, I have no doubt.

[Centurion40]

I have Sirius for Howard Stern.  While I have heard of the A&O show, I had no idea who Anthony Cumia was, until I read this thread (for the 1st time) today.

[BanzaiCat]

I enjoyed Stern's movie, 'Private Parts,' but for whatever reason I just can't listen to his show.

I'd never heard of O&A before October or so of 2012 when I stumbled across it while they were playing 'Best Of' episodes, and I was hooked on them thereafter.

[Gusington]

One of my best friends turned me on to O and A around 2000 when they were on WNEW in NYC...the first skit I heard by them was the Rocky Balboa - glass table bit. I have been changed ever since.

In college I had my own radio show for a summer (I lived half a block from a community college) and I was a guest on some buddies college radio shows for a few years...those two buddies now work professionally for Clearchannel, one as a producerad one as on air talent.