The Opie & Anthony Show

About

The Opie and Anthony Show is a talk radio duo consisting of Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia who have served as hosts for The Opie & Anthony Show on various radio stations in the United States since 1995.

History

In 1994, Hughes and Cumia began working together on a radio show in Long Island, New York. In 1995, the pair moved to Boston's WAAF radio station to launch the talk show Opie & Anthony. On April Fool's Day in 1998, the show was terminated after the pair orchestrated a prank in which they told listeners that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino had died in a car accident while riding with a young female Haitian prostitute. In June, the show was relaunched at the New York City station WNEW-FM. By 2000, it had become a top 10 afternoon drive show in the state. In 2001, comedian Jim Norton became a regular guest on the show. On August 15th, 2002, a Virginia couple visiting Manhattan were arrested while appearing to have sex at St. Patrick's Cathedral as part of the show's "Sex for Sam" contest. One week later, the show was canceled by Infinity Broadcasting for the incident. On October 4th, 2004, the Opie and Anthony Show returned on XM Satellite Radio. In April 2006, a deal was signed with CBS Radio to broadcast the Opie and Anthony Show on several rock stations. In May 2007, the duo were suspended by XM Satellite Radio for 30 days for comments made during a show in which a guest named "Homeless Charlie" revealed he wanted to forcefully have sex with former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former First Lady Laura Bush (shown below).

Online Presence

On September 22nd, 1999, the Opie and Anthony Show-related web forum WackBag.com^[3] was launched. On June 27th, 2005, the Opie and Anthony Show wiki OApedia^[9] was created. On March 3rd, 2008, a Facebook^[8] page titled "The Opie and Anthony Show" was launched, which accumulated more than 110,000 likes in the next seven years. On April 16th, 2011, a page for the show was created on the Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica.^[10] On March 24th, the /r/opieandanthony^[2] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the radio show.

Highlights

Minnesota Governor's Walkout

Many audio and video recordings of Opie and Anthony shows have been uploaded to YouTube. On December 2nd, 2009, the Opie Radio YouTube channel uploaded a video of former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura walking off the show following an argument with comedian Jim Norton (shown below). In the first five years, the video gained over 1.29 million views and 23,000 comments.

Louis CK vs. Donald Rumsfeld

On February 24th, 2011, comedian Louis C.K. uploaded audio of his appearance on the Opie and Anthony show in which he accuses former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of being a reptilian humanoid, garnering more than 750,000 views and 2,200 comments in the next four years.

Internet Culture

On June 25th, 2007, guest Jimmy Fallon discussed the shock site Lemon Party during his appearance on the Opie and Anthony Show (shown below, left). On December 11th, 2007, YouTuber ErockFan uploaded a video in which Opie & Anthony Show producer Erik Nagel is filmed attempting the cinnamon challenge by putting a spoonful of dry cinnamon in his mouth (shown below, right).

On January 11th, 2008, YouTuber ErockFan posted footage of comedian Louis C.K.'s reaction to the "2 Girls 1 Cup" shock video (show, left). In six years, the video gathered more than 990,000 views and 1,000 comments. In July 2010, American perennial candidate Basil Marceaux was interviewed on the Opie and Anthony show during which he was asked to clarify his political platform (shown below, right).

Controversies

Anthony Cumia's Racist Twitter Rant

On July 2nd, 2014, Cumia^[1] posted several tweets claiming that he was assaulted by a woman for taking pictures with her in the frame and continued to rant about her race.

In the coming days, the controversial rant was reported on by several news sites, including Jezebel,^[4] UpRoxx,^[5] New York Daily News^[6] and The Washington Post.^[7] On July 4th, Sirius XM fired Cumia from the show in the wake of the controversy.

"SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel. The decision was made, and Cumia informed, late Thursday, July 3, after careful consideration of his racially charged and hate-filled remarks on social media. Those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents."

Anthony Cumia's Domestic Abuse Video

On December 19st, 2015, Anthony Cumia was arrested on charges of domestic violence after his girlfriend Dani Golightly, a 26-year-old comedian who had previously appeared as a guest on Opie and Anthony back in 2008, contacted the authorities. The aftermath of the physical altercation, which took place at Cumia's home in Long Island, New York, was partially livestreamed on the mobile app Periscope by Golightly and later uploaded to YouTube (shown below).^[15]

“Hi, I’m in Long Island, I got my hand broken, I’m waiting for police to come,” the woman in the video says. “I tried to call the police, but he turned the phone off.” The video abruptly cuts away. “Oh my God, don’t hit me!” the woman yells. “Stay away from me!”

According to the police statement provided by Golightly, the 54-year-old shock jock allegedly pinned her up against a wall, strangled her and stomped on her hand as she attempted to flee the house after a dispute. The next morning, Cumia was arraigned on a charge of second-degree strangulation and released without bail. In the following days, the video footage quickly entered circulation in the social media and entertainment news sites, including Gawker^[11], Reddit^[12][13] and New York Magazine,^[14] among others.

Search Interest

External References