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| Posted By | Discussion Topic: O&A Article from Inside.com 6/15/01 | ||||
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| Opera Man - 57th Street | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 4:58 PM |    | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Feb. 01  | More Jackasses in the Viacom Family: Not-So-Dumb Jocks Opie and Anthony Go National The latest flavor of radio raunch gets a three-year deal and 'blitzkrieg rollout' syndication deal from Infinity Broadcasting. But will the pair keep its regular-guy audience now that they are millionaires? by Jesse Oxfeld Friday, June 15 12:34 P.M. The success of Opie and Anthony's New York afternoon drive-time radio show begins with a basic conceit: that its two hosts are regular guys, not so different from their listeners, with the same problems and desires as the typical 18- to 49-year-old man stuck in traffic on the Long Island Expressway. And in a lot of ways the two are similar to their listeners: They both grew up on the Island, and they still live there. (Technically, Anthony resides in the New York City part.) They fight with their bosses and were fired from their last job. Anthony plays a lot of computer games; Opie works out. They're endlessly fascinated by strippers. But there's one major way they're different from their mook-populated audience: they're rich radio stars, and their fans are not. Last week, three years after they arrived at New York's WNEW-FM, Opie and Anthony, whose boys-will-be-boys radio show is the most listened to during its time slot among its target (young male) audience and ranks third among all radio listeners, signed a new three-year contract in which, essentially, they got everything they wanted, and we're not just talking about the money. Among the victories: a ''blitzkrieg rollout,'' the words of one industry commentator, to 22 other Infinity-owned stations in the top 50 markets and further syndication in the works; the lifting of the ban that prevented them from talking about raunch-talk trailblazer and Infinity Broadcasting colleague Howard Stern; oh, and there's the money. For a profile a few months ago, the pair were careful to argue -- if a bit implausibly -- that they weren't particularly well off (''Let's put it this way,'' Opie said during an interview, ''we both still rent.''); press reports last week peg the new contract at $30 million over three years. It's time for them to buy. Of course, the stars denied on their show that the deal was so rich. Regardless, ''it's definitely a big contract,'' says Tom Taylor, editor of M Street Daily, a radio-business trade publication. ''It's like figuring out the CIA budget,'' he jokes. ''We'll never really know. There are probably performance bonuses and other kickers, depending on the number of stations and ratings and revenue and those sorts of things.'' What is clear, says Taylor, is that Infinity is ''intent on moving Opie and Anthony out to be a national brand.'' And that worries Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine, the talk-radio trade pub -- and also, it should be pointed out, a jock on WNEW back in its progressive-rock glory days. ''This is a corporate story, not a cultural one,'' he says of the deal, proffered by the radio arm of media giant Viacom. ''It signifies that a company, a major company the size of CBS, thinks that this new style of broadcasting is big enough and significant enough to put major marketing and financial effort behind it ... The simple meaning is, 'Wow, raunch is big.' I think the bigger meaning is that stockholders and the corporate nature of media will do anything for a profit.'' Indeed, in a media world that is not only corporate but also conglomeratized, Infinity's promulgation of Opie and Anthony is in line with corporate sibling MTV's defense of Jackass and half-sibling Comedy Central's embrace of The Man Show. Whatever the reason, Infinity is strongly behind O&A. ''I've never seen Infinity engage in this concentrated syndication push inside the company,'' says M Street's Taylor. ''They are relentlessly, inexorably, rolling out Opie and Anthony.'' This aggressive rollout, Taylor notes, will force stations to make tough decisions about their formats: O&A will likely be sent to traditionally music-oriented stations, some which already carry Stern's show in the morning. ''It's a bit of a gamble,'' he says, ''because these are high-producing properties in terms of revenue, and you're really changing the nature of them because you're committing more time to a topical, male talk format and moving away from the music position.'' But Walter Sabo, the radio consultant who invented the young, male, FM-talk genre, notes the format's success is already well established -- to all but the often behind-the-times people within the radio business. His first guy-talk station, in Orlando, has been on the air for 10 years already, he points out. ''This will certainly validate the format to many radio people,'' he says, ''but it's already old news to the audience and to the advertisers.'' • | ||||
| Arthur Dent | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 5:06 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Nov. 00 | quote: Should I be insulted? quote: "He ripped me off Robin, woo-hoo"  "I don't read books, but I have friends who do." -Presidential Candidate George W. Bush "I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada." - Britney Spears | ||||
| Roger | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 5:06 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00 | Gee, that's a long article. "One girl, I drove through three states wearing her head as a hat." ~ Garland 'The Marietta Mangler' Greene | ||||
| Enigma Sig Pics of HOT CHICKS and an SU Feed... will wonders never cease? | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 5:10 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Nov. 00 | quote: Hoo hoo...I thought Howard invented talking  | ||||
| mikeWOW | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 5:40 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Sep. 00 | that guy is such a dick... mock audience??? "i hate people that dont get it!" | ||||
| Filzy Stand up straight Stomach in Shoulders back SOUND OFF!!! | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 7:38 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Sep. 00 | Mook audience? Fuck that guy, just because I behave like a barbarian, raped a few women, and burnt a few villages, doesn't mean I'm a mook. However, I am a savage. Yeah, keep typing away on your computer at your posh little offcie, Jesse Oxford. We, the laborers will take it away from you, if you're not careful.  OA.com's headhunter and veteran Headhunter in training: Nineinchhammer One spot available | ||||
| Tequila Fez claims this land in the name of Portugal! Why worry about the train if it never makes it around the tracks?? IrishAlkey wuz here!!! | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 8:36 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Veteran Registered: Jan. 01 | Opie works out?  AOL - oanda1027fm | ||||
| fbdlingfrg wow, my name looks odd without 5 lines of type below it in bold and purple and red G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Red Wings Captain Cecil JBA~Remove the Pick & Click NOW! | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 8:42 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00 | i was thinking the same thing, tequilla i didn't watch out so the insects got me, but  | ||||
| djgrrrl | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 8:44 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Nov. 00 | Personally,I don't like the article. It kind f hints that O&A are on their way to selling out. fp://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/ea29fad2/bc/Yahoo!+Photo+Album/O%26A+Cat2---1.jpg?bcJWNGqBVbXs4KJT | ||||
| jewdown | posted on 06-15-2001 @ 9:46 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Jan. 01 | quote: Who gives a fuck? They are still damn funny, and more real than any other radio personality I've ever heard. Besides Ant was hanging with the "beautiful people" well before this contract. BTW, this article sucks monkey ass! "I was born in the desert, raised in a lion's den" | ||||
| BARBER SHOP TALK | posted on 06-16-2001 @ 9:26 AM | | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Feb. 01 | quote: How many of us knew that O&A was part of this family. They played the game pretty good by knocking these shows.  | ||||
| X-Filed Rich Vos is the emobdiemnt of all that is teh funney | posted on 06-16-2001 @ 10:28 AM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Jun. 01 | quote:what's next? running 6 miles a aday and drinking sea breeze's at nobu? "I swear it was THIS BIG!!!" | ||||
| Spork | posted on 06-16-2001 @ 10:43 AM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Jun. 01 | Yeah, now the whole "mook" thing... that's a little bit harsh. (Yes kids, I'm breaking out dictionary.com once again....) mook (mk) n. Slang An insignificant or contemptible person. On the bright side of course, I suppose that means that we're either one or the other, not both. It also has to make you wonder what Mookie Blaylock's parents were thinking when they named him. I'm just going to spend the rest of the day wondering if I'm insignificant or contemptable. I think contemptable is probably cooler...  Adopted by Rone on 6/6/01 | ||||
| BARBER SHOP TALK | posted on 06-17-2001 @ 9:42 AM | | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Feb. 01 | quote: We are called "TOOLS" by O&A which in the shows term means "DICK" yet we are upset over the word MOOK. What would rather be called A DICK or a MOOK???? | ||||
| ThousandRubleThursday | posted on 06-17-2001 @ 11:39 AM | | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Jan. 01 | hey i thought anthony had the home gym | ||||
| Spork | posted on 06-17-2001 @ 6:28 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Jun. 01 | What would I rather be called, a dick or a mook... hmmmm.... I'm thinking: TOOL Graduated and Rooned by Rone on 6/16/01 | ||||
| windowlck | posted on 06-17-2001 @ 10:44 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00 | quote: I think the author mistook Opies Man Boobs for Pecks?  "What are you gonna do?Release the dogs?! Or the bees?! Or dogs with bees in their mouth so that when they bark they shoot bees at you?" | ||||
| Fs Like A Rabbit | posted on 06-18-2001 @ 2:39 AM | | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Oct. 00 | Just another reporter who thinks he knows everything, but just doesn't get it. Fs_Like_A_Rabbit@opieanthony.com "I am bulletproof.......next time you best bring kryptonite."-Darrell Hammond as Pres. Clinton on SNL | ||||
| whichwaymediumorrare | posted on 06-18-2001 @ 9:56 AM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Apr. 01 | dudes this reporter definitly does not get it.go back to cbs oldies jerkoff.it is a typical play to try to seperate the army from the boys.eat shit jesse oxfeld  ADOPTED BY FILZY This message was edited by whichwaymediumorrare on 6-18-01 @ 2:40 PM | ||||
Displaying 1-19 of 19 messages in this thread. |