01-14-2004, 07:08 PM
O&A's Return....
Opie and Anthony
talk of returning
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Opie (Gregg Hughes, l.) and Anthony Cumia in their WNEW days
Tossing off jokes and showing no particular remorse about the St. Patrick's Cathedral sex stunt that got them heaved off the air at WNEW 17 months ago, exiled radio bad boys Opie and Anthony vow they will be back in June - and just as offensive as ever.
They lost their WNEW gig after an August 2002 incident in which they broadcast a live account of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Pat's.
"I can't help but think if the couple had sex in a mosque, we would have gotten a raise," Opie (Gregg Hughes) said in the February issue of FHM magazine. "That would have been a patriotic thing to do for your country."
Anthony (Anthony Cumia) was equally casual in the pair's most extensive comments to date about the incident.
"I don't know if there's much of a lesson to be learned from what happened to us," he said. "If you're going to do something, there will be consequences. And in some cases, there's no way to prevent the consequences."
The Virginia couple was arrested for their alleged action, prompting a firestorm that led to the dismissal of WNEW's station manager and program director.
"We could have been fired for any of 20 other things" before that, said Cumia, noting the "Voyeur Bus" with topless women that tied up Manhattan traffic, and a listener who got a graphic anatomical reference into a live television news shot.
Their Infinity contracts expire in June, and as they prepare to return to the air - with Sirius Satellite radio considered the most likely spot - they are expected to begin raising their profiles again.
"We're eagerly awaiting our return to the airwaves," Cumia said. "We want to work."
"For a few months, [being paid not to work] is awesome," Hughes said. "I wish this had happened to me when I was 22, so I could call up all the guys and go to the beach. But after a while, you realize you're the only one not working."
Hughes said he didn't realize when he signed his contract that this kind of enforced absence was possible.
"I didn't know what I was signing," he said.
Reflecting on their time at Infinity, Cumia said they were once given a profane dressing-down by Infinity radio chief Mel Karmazin after "another on-air personality from Infinity" - speculated to be Howard Stern - complained to Karmazin that Opie and Anthony were talking about his personal life.
Cumia didn't identify the other "Infinity personality," but said, "Even though this person had built a career out of touching on other people's personal lives...when you touched on his personal life, he ran to Mel Karmazin."
An Infinity spokeswoman had no comment about the FHM interview.
Opie and Anthony
talk of returning
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Opie (Gregg Hughes, l.) and Anthony Cumia in their WNEW days
Tossing off jokes and showing no particular remorse about the St. Patrick's Cathedral sex stunt that got them heaved off the air at WNEW 17 months ago, exiled radio bad boys Opie and Anthony vow they will be back in June - and just as offensive as ever.
They lost their WNEW gig after an August 2002 incident in which they broadcast a live account of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Pat's.
"I can't help but think if the couple had sex in a mosque, we would have gotten a raise," Opie (Gregg Hughes) said in the February issue of FHM magazine. "That would have been a patriotic thing to do for your country."
Anthony (Anthony Cumia) was equally casual in the pair's most extensive comments to date about the incident.
"I don't know if there's much of a lesson to be learned from what happened to us," he said. "If you're going to do something, there will be consequences. And in some cases, there's no way to prevent the consequences."
The Virginia couple was arrested for their alleged action, prompting a firestorm that led to the dismissal of WNEW's station manager and program director.
"We could have been fired for any of 20 other things" before that, said Cumia, noting the "Voyeur Bus" with topless women that tied up Manhattan traffic, and a listener who got a graphic anatomical reference into a live television news shot.
Their Infinity contracts expire in June, and as they prepare to return to the air - with Sirius Satellite radio considered the most likely spot - they are expected to begin raising their profiles again.
"We're eagerly awaiting our return to the airwaves," Cumia said. "We want to work."
"For a few months, [being paid not to work] is awesome," Hughes said. "I wish this had happened to me when I was 22, so I could call up all the guys and go to the beach. But after a while, you realize you're the only one not working."
Hughes said he didn't realize when he signed his contract that this kind of enforced absence was possible.
"I didn't know what I was signing," he said.
Reflecting on their time at Infinity, Cumia said they were once given a profane dressing-down by Infinity radio chief Mel Karmazin after "another on-air personality from Infinity" - speculated to be Howard Stern - complained to Karmazin that Opie and Anthony were talking about his personal life.
Cumia didn't identify the other "Infinity personality," but said, "Even though this person had built a career out of touching on other people's personal lives...when you touched on his personal life, he ran to Mel Karmazin."
An Infinity spokeswoman had no comment about the FHM interview.
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