WNEW Shock Jocks Fired

1010wins.com ^ | August 22, 2002 5:13 PM US/Eastern | 1010 WINS

[ELS]

Opie and Anthony are over and out. The New York-based shock jocks, criticized by Catholic groups for broadcasting a live account of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral, had their nationally syndicated show canceled Thursday.

The station, owned by Infinity Broadcasting, offered no further comment. The pair had been pulled off the airwaves Monday, three days after the stunt was aired.

The cancellation was announced shortly after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell directed the agency's enforcement bureau to investigate the broadcast. The FCC had been flooded with hundreds of complaints about the show.

The rest of the story...

[ELS]

Good riddance!

[hellinahandcart]

Donohue said his group would back off its call for the FCC to pull WNEW's broadcast license and fine Infinity.
"It's over," he said. "I'm satisfied."

I'm not.

At the very least there should be a fine much greater than "the cost of doing business" (as the previous fines were considered) or WNEW and Infinity will just pull this crap again.

[www.corvettewave.com]

Anyone want to make a wager about when they will show up again? I bet it will not be two weeks before we hear that this pair is working for more money, and is lots more famous than before. A sad fact about our society is that we reward those that abuses it...

[Balding_Eagle]

agreed, they should have their license to broadcast suspended for a week.

[Koblenz]

I think the responsibility lies with the couple having sex, not anthony and opie. "But he told me to do it" didn't work when I was 8, and it shouldn't work with this group either. So Anthony and Opie encouraged lewd behavior. They didn't do it. All of these court cases about the KKK or Nuremburg Files webmaster encouraging people really makes me wonder where responsibility lies. I'm certainly no fan of the KKK or Nuremburg files, but as long as they aren't doing what they advocate, they shouldn't be held responsible (unless they give a gun to a minor and tell him to do it, or give a gun to someone they know to be mentally retarded).

[lavrenti]

I am. Opie and Anthony anchored the WNEW format. Infinity is screwed, and it is likely the station will eventually be sold or have another format change, perferably to music, which is what they were doing until this recent madness.

Pulling a license is a very expensive, time-consuming process for all parties involved. Especially for a station as well-known as WNEW.

It was just unfortunate that the ghost of Bishop Dagger John Hughes (the man who built Saint Patrick's) didn't manifest, pull his gun from his cassock and pistol-whip the malcontents.

[Calvin Coolidge]

Don't be so defeatist! The system worked! Catholics and other concerned citizens protested, the station's sponsors likely got scared, and the plug was pulled. All without the need for Government intervention.

If they show up somewhere else, what is to stop the same coalition that got them cancelled in the first place from following them to their new job?

Calls for governmental punishment of the station at this point seem gratuitous and dangerous.

[Tancred]

Howie Carr was talking about this on his show yesterday (conservative Boston-based radio host, for those of you unfamiliar with the fat bastard). He said that the radio station was foolish to get rid of them (from a business standpoint) since they had gotten an enormous amount of free publicity and their show was already bringing in great ratings for the station.

[hellinahandcart]

Infinity is screwed

Wait. You think VIACOM is screwed because of this? LOL

That's why I want the record-setting fine.

and it is likely the station will eventually be sold or have another format change, perferably to music, which is what they were doing until this recent madness.

I remember them being a superior rock station at one time in the distant past.

[dighton]

At the very least there should be a fine much greater than "the cost of doing business" (as the previous fines were considered) or WNEW and Infinity will just pull this crap again.

Agreed. It would also send a message to any station considering hiring those creeps.

[AppyPappy]

their show was already bringing in great ratings for the station.

Hitler had really high poll numbers too.

[kezekiel]

My guess is they'll end up in Miami or Las Vegas.

[apillar]

I would occasionaly listen to Opie and Anthony on the way home from work. At times some of there parodies and skits were moderately entertaining. Although they did often cross the line into crude and vulgar.

Quite honestly until the news about the St. Patricks Cathedral incident I thought most of the "antics" such as the "sex in unusual places callers" were just scripted acts. The fact that this junk was real puts it into a whole new light.

[bribriagain]

love your handle. I own a 2001 triple black vette convertible.

[hellinahandcart]

I think the responsibility lies with the couple having sex, not anthony and opie. "But he told me to do it" didn't work when I was 8, and it shouldn't work with this group either. So Anthony and Opie encouraged lewd behavior. They didn't do it.

By hosting the contest, publicizing the contest, setting the parameters of the contest--all with the full knowledge and support of WNEW and Infinity, btw--and soliciting volunteers for the contest, they were participants whether or not they "did" it. A pimp may not "do it", but he arranges it and benefits from it.

Opie and Anthony will have to be bought out of their contracts, you know. That's a punishment I wish someone would inflict on me.

Re: contest parameters--they assigned "extra points" to certain places. One of them was FAO Schwarz. The TOY store. Why do you think the show hosts, the station, the sponsors and the broadcasting company should bear no responsibility if their hand-picked contestants actually follow the directions they're given and go rut in NY's most famous and most busy toy store?

The constestants themselves are facing jail time. The people who inflicted the whole mess on us, though, are escaping with NO consequences. None of the planners and facilitators will face any punishment at all. I'm not satisfied.

[ELS]

I think the responsibility lies with the couple having sex, not anthony and opie.

The couple was charged with public lewdness, not Opie and Anthony. I don't think the couple is using the "they told us to do it" defense.

Opie and Anthony were fired. People get fired for reasons other than breaking the law.

[bribriagain]

"Hitler had really high poll numbers too."

Yeah, and look where it got him.

ParrotsDown

[Orual]

Anyone want to make a wager about when they will show up again?

They are already in negotiations. It didn't take them very long to get the WNEW job after being fired in Boston. They'll have radio stations running after them like dogs in heat.

[AppyPappy]

The same place as Opie and Opie.