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Posted By	Discussion Topic: O&A Suspended Article
LingRLonger You want back-up's... I've got back-up's...	posted on 05-30-2002 @ 12:14 PM
Psychopath Registered: Aug. 01	By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 30, 2002; Page C01 Infinity Broadcasting has sent feuding radio duos Don and Mike and Opie and Anthony to their rooms, suspending both teams for their on-air sniping at each other last week. Live editions of both "The Don & Mike Show" and "The Opie & Anthony Show" were pulled from the air Tuesday and yesterday by Infinity, the New York-based broadcasting giant that employs all four men and syndicates their daily programs to 70 stations nationwide. In this area, the shows are heard on WJFK-FM. On their late-afternoon program, Opie and Anthony (Greg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) have repeatedly knocked industry veterans Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara. Their gibes revolved primarily around Don and Mike's low audience ratings on WNEW, O&A's station in New York. Geronimo and O'Meara ignored the cracks until last Thursday, when the pair responded with a lengthy, insult-laden tirade slamming Opie and Anthony's ratings in Washington. What makes the feud unusual is that both sets of hosts work for the same company and are heard consecutively on many of the same stations, including WJFK. Listeners expecting to hear the two programs live over the past two days instead heard repeats of earlier programs. A brief announcement preceding Tuesday's "Don and Mike" program said the hosts were extending their Memorial Day vacations. In fact, Geronimo said in an interview yesterday that he and O'Meara were ordered to stay off the air by Infinity executives, who cited the ongoing feud. Geronimo said he wouldn't be on the air on Thursday, but didn't know how long he'd have to sit out after that. "I was told not to go to work Tuesday and today," the house-bound deejay said. "I'm [angry], but the people I feel bad for are our listeners, the people who support us day in and day out. . . . . We want to be at work. We want to be at the station. We don't want to be sitting around in some stupid girl fight." Hughes and Cumia were also told by the company not to report to work, according to people at WNEW. One source said the program, which airs from 3 to 7 p.m., after "Don & Mike," would resume live broadcasts on Friday. Calls to WJFK station manager Alan Leinwand and WNEW station manager Ken Stevens weren't returned yesterday. The suspensions belie the notion that the crossfire is a stunt cooked up by both camps to boost ratings. Although listener interest may have been piqued by the dispute, removing the hosts from the air indicates that Infinity isn't trying to profit from the brouhaha. The use of recorded programs undoubtedly will drive away some listeners, which could affect both programs' audience totals during the quarterly ratings period. Infinity's management apparently fears that greater damage would be done by permitting the internecine warfare to continue. Due to low ratings, "Don & Mike" is already on the verge of cancellation in New York, the nation's largest radio market, and the continued lashing from O&A can only hasten the exodus of advertisers and listeners from the show. Infinity once had high hopes for both programs. Last year, it began marketing the two shows to radio stations, along with Howard Stern's morning program (also heard on WJFK), in a bid to provide an all-day block of programming that appeals strongly to men. That effort was a failure; so far, only WJFK, an Infinity-owned station, airs all three programs. While about 50 stations nationwide carry "Don & Mike," and about 20 air "Opie & Anthony," the syndicated package of all three has found no takers. This isn't Don & Mike's first time in the cooler. The duo were suspended for about 10 days last summer when they began talking about another WJFK personality, G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy's program had been canceled by the station, and the host was in the midst of negotiating with another local station, WTNT-AM, when Infinity stepped in to prevent D&M from commenting. Geronimo said yesterday he was willing to refrain from talking about Opie and Anthony on the air, but management was adamant about removing him and his partner temporarily. "This is killing us," he said. "We weren't on Tuesday. We weren't on Wednesday. We won't be on Thursday. All this does is hurt us and the station." This message was edited by LingRLonger on 5-30-02 @ 1:22 PM

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