Anthony, from the Opie & Anthony Show on Sirius XM, has been fired. He was taking some pictures in Times Square when a women thought she was the object of the photos. She attacked him, punching him five times and calling him a, "white motherf*cker." He posted a picture of her on Twitter and attached a expletive laden diatribe to the rant. Sirius read it and fired him late Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/anthony-opie-anthony-fame-fired-twitter-rant-195335862.html
I've tried to reply, but I have no words that don't make me sound like an asshole for supporting Anthony.
Bottom line is, the media is of course completely ignoring the fact that this crazy woman physically attacked him and called him a 'white motherfucker.' He calls her a "cuntrag" on Twitter and gets fired. Nevermind her. She's obviously a victim, the poor, poor thing. ::)
His taking pictures and then posting them is probably ultimately what did him in. None of the pics have her face except one - the one in the news story there that's all blurred out. I'm surprised that link says "white motherfucker" in it and isn't glossing over what she did to him; most others seem to be trying to make her look like the victim and Anthony like the criminal here.
I dunno. I had a feeling this was going to catch up to him eventually. O&A was pretty much the only channel I listened to on SiriusXM and I have no doubt Opie and Norton and others will leave them soon. And with them go a ton of subscribers. And no doubt they'll have another job somewhere within a few months, because no matter their politics or beliefs or opinions, O&A draws in ratings hand over fist.
I've never listened to the show. I get the impression that they are not the kind of show I would appreciate. You certainly can't draw conclusions from one bit, but, I heard a clip of one them pretending to be Tony Danza. Sounded a lot like him. He was calling a woman who was president of one of his fan clubs (IIRC). He proceeded to lead her on, get her all excited like she was talking to the guy she worshiped and then being crude and mean to her. I have found that kind of behavior funny in the past, I just don't go for it now.
Despite all that, if the story on Yahoo represents what actually happened, then, he doesn't deserve to be fired. Could he have been nicer, or ignored the whole thing and gone about his business? Sure, but, she had no right to assault him and call him names. And who among us has not been outraged at, what appears to be, an unprovoked attack. Verbal or physical.
I see why Sirius XM did it. The PC police would have stirred a shitstorm and called them out if they didn't fire him immediately. So they were just CYA. It would be nice to see someone take a stand against douchebags that cry, "FOUL," when it's their feelings that are hurt though. I'm tired of walking on eggshells. As the curmudgeon on the, 'John Boy & Billy Show,' says, "We are the United States of the Offended."
I dont really like O&A and my problem with this is that they are always involved in instigating some sort of shenanigans.
I just find it suspicious that he would have a random stranger cuss him out and use racial terms right when he is taking photos. NY is a tough place but having lived in many major big cities I have never had or heard of anything similar happening to myself or my friends who live in NY. I am sure it can happen but just find it all too coincidental that it happened to someone who loves stirring up shit
Con
Had I not already cancelled my Siriux-XM subscription a couple of years ago, I would now. Of course, that took countless calls and emails over a three month span as they continued to fail at the arduous task of actually cancelling the account. >:(
The only reason Sirius-XM even remains a viable enterprise is because they somehow convinced every North American auto maker to shove a Sirius-XM system into every car they build.
.
I don't know why this is being labeled a racist issue. Anthony's whole Twitter outburst was crass but he never said anything about her race from what I read.
I think the terminology I've been seeing regularly is "racist-fueled" or "racist-leaning." Nothing about, you know, actually being racist. Funny how they're being very careful with the words they use.
Now, "white motherfucker"
sure as hell is racist. But nobody brings that point up on any of the news sites (except in the comments sections), because it's okay if a white guy is being called something like that. If it were the other way around...oh, no.
Honestly I'm surprised they lasted that long. As I said I figured it would catch up with them at some point. I read somewhere that SiriusXM was looking to not renew the show, and this was probably a convenient way for them to do it. I gotta wonder if they thought about how many subscribers they'd lose in one fell swoop over this. I'm thinking of calling to threaten cancellation to see what kind of a deal I can get out of it. O&A might have been one of the only channels I listened to, but there's 200 others I can switch over to I suppose.
QuoteRead since Sirus and XM radio merged they have been getting rid of DJ's. Bet some corporate bean counter figured this was a good excuse to fire the guy.
I was a bit surprised in hearing what they paid Stern back in 2011 - $80 million a year back about at the time of the merger, and that was down from $100 million a year. Also, their management LOVES to pull in big names from Hollywood, music, and sports (can you say Oprah, Jimmy Buffett, and Tony Hawk), people you and I have heard of but have zero radio personality, and paying them a shitton of money to slap their name on a channel and then, ironically, pay the people that are on the air barely enough to make a living. SXM cut the salaries of just about everyone that had a 'big' show since the merger, because the managers are more about making big name-recognition deals with people that have zero radio skills, but pinching pennies with their on-air talent. Their CEO whined in Forbes that he was making next to no money when he pulled in almost $40 million in 2012 (plus stock options, IIRC, that came out over $100 million - yeah, you suffered, you poor bastard). I've heard some SXM DJs make $100-200 a week. I thought it was a joke, but I heard it often enough on the O&A show and elsewhere that it made me think it must be pretty close. Board operators only make about $35,000 a year, so regardless of range, that's a crap wage in a market like New York or Washington D.C. A lot of those DJs do multiple channels, probably for the money and more likely because they keep shedding DJs like snakes shed skin.
Anyway. O&A weren't hurting for cash, but they'd sometimes bring up how they should be making closer to what Stern was bringing in, that surely they had listener numbers near his, and so on. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and these cancellations really do make a dent in them.
I prefer the term cracker ass motherfucker personally.
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on July 04, 2014, 11:04:58 PMI gotta wonder if they thought about how many subscribers they'd lose in one fell swoop over this. I'm thinking of calling to threaten cancellation to see what kind of a deal I can get out of it. O&A might have been one of the only channels I listened to, but there's 200 others I can switch over to I suppose.
http://www.reddit.com/r/opieandanthony/comments/29tsgo/everone_cancel_siriusxm_anthonystrong/
This is interesting - when I checked Ant's Twitter feed this morning, he's apparently deleted everything back through late January of this year. He must have been advised to do so by counsel. The last tweet he's showing is from 1/20/14.
Good thing I took some screenshots of some of his diatribe, lol.
In any case, he'd been retweeting tons of pics of people showing their cancellation notices for SiriusXM. The more I think about it the more I'll just wait and see what happens Monday. If they put someone like Louis C.K. into Ant's chair, that would be well worth sticking around for. Even if they just keep playing 'Best Of' episodes through October, that's fine too, because honestly their older stuff, before SXM put the chastity belt on them and restricted their on air antics (see: Sex for Sam, or The Voyeur Bus, as slight examples), was all a lot more entertaining than what they've been doing lately. Even so, I've enjoyed listening to them. Light years better than the old Stevens & Pruett or Walton & Johnson here locally.
I used to listen to local sports AM radio all the time, but can't go back to that. Seems every time I do switch over to them they're playing commercials (AM tends to be 25-30 minutes of actual content and 30-35 minutes of advertising). Regular FM radio? Oh, hell no - it's usually crappy "top 40" pop junk, Spanish stations, or other watered-down and dull content. I've admittedly been spoiled with satellite radio and doubt I'll cancel. I just need to find something entertaining now.
^I just plug my iPhone into the car radio and listen to everything from Pandora to BasicBrewing Radio. There's a whole crap-load of stuff to enjoy once you stop depending on the airwaves.
I don't have satellite radio but I carpool with buddies who do. There's a lot of advertising on there too which surprised me. I have to pay AND listen to crappy commercials? No thank you.
I can't believe how little some of the DJs are making on Sirius. I have two really old friends - one a board operator/producer and the other an on air DJ for a really big national show - and they both make very comfortable livings. I thought that anyone who made it to Sirius made it big time...guess not :/
Quote from: Staggerwing on July 05, 2014, 11:30:11 AM
^I just plug my iPhone into the car radio and listen to everything from Pandora to BasicBrewing Radio.
I would do that, if I could. When my car was sold to me, they told me it had a jack for iPhones and that I could play music via bluetooth. Came to find out, I cannot do that, which REALLY pissed me off - but the dealer would do nothing about it.
Quote from: Gusington
There's a lot of advertising on there too which surprised me.
That's not on all the channels; only a few of them seem to do that (O&A is/was definitely one; I would just change the channel to music and wait two songs, then the nonsense would be over). The music stations I've heard do not play commercials. Comedy Central's channel does, as do all the other 'comedy' channels. It's a pain, but there's definitely less commercials to listen to, and I am ALL for that.
Sorry to hear that BC. I actually use a $9 cassette tape adapter with a cord and mini-phono plug because my vehicle is old enough to have a cassette deck. :-\
^I am now old enough to think that is the best, simplest way to go :)
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.
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.
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.
Jim Norton could carry a show by himself. And he is a rather dashing looking gentleman (I resemble him strongly)
So he has trouble seeing above the dashboard when he drives too?
Quote from: mirth on July 09, 2014, 01:56:27 PMSo 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
Quote from: Gusington on July 09, 2014, 01:55:11 PM
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.
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.
I think we could pull off a radio chat show quite easily.
With the banter hereabouts, I have no doubt.
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.
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.
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.