New York- Naughty boys Opie and Anthony resurfaced yesterday, this time in the no-rules world of satellite radio, and they likely astonished some critics by not immediately turning the airwaves blue.
But the hot-talk hosts, off the air since they were kicked to the curb by WNEW in August 2002 for saying that two of their listeners were having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, were not reluctant to flex the freedom they now have on XM Satellite Radio.
Four-letter expletives flowed freely in recorded bits and calls from listeners, who far more than the hosts seem to love hearing dirty words. The show started with a rapid-fire recorded recitation of George Carlin’s famous “seven words you can’t say on the radio.”
Opie (Gregg Hughes) and Anthony Cumia said several times the show doesn’t yet have its full rhythm. But it still had the familiar loose feeling their young-guy audiences love.
They talked a lot about sex, with Anthony expressing hope they could get a new Wiffle bat to insert “somewhere dark and deep” into their guests.
They blasted Howard Stern as a “whining hypocrite.” They said WNEW’s parent Infinity once asked them to sign a contract that fined them $100,000 each for mentioning any other Infinity personality, like Stern. They also assessed the physical assets of Stern’s daughter.
They reiterated that the “Sex for Sam” contest that got them booted from WNEW wasn’t nearly the outrage it was portrayed to be. Then Anthony joked that on satellite, they might expand the idea, “maybe into the Muslim world. We could do ‘Sex for Allah.'”
Talking about the Mount St. Helens story, Anthony suggested that with all due respect, it would be justice if some of the volcano rubberneckers got covered with hot molten lava.
Launching what will doubtless be a string of complaints about their employer, Opie noted XM’s main facility in Washington, D.C., is in a rough section he called “Chocolate City.”
Subscriber response to Opie and Anthony has been “very, very positive,” says XM spokesman Chance Patterson. Their channel costs $1.99 a month beyond the normal subscriber fee.
“Right now we have the audience of a college radio station,” Opie said yesterday. “But we’ll be back on top. I guarantee it.”