Opie & Anthony Get All Seven Roth Markets
Paul Heine and Mike Boyle, Billboard Radio Monitor
APRIL 20, 2006 -
In one of the first satellite-to-terrestrial radio syndication deals, XM Satellite Radio has an agreement in place to license its Opie & Anthony Show to CBS Radio in seven markets.
According to sources familiar with the situation, the duo, whose terrestrial radio career went up in flames in 2002, will bring David Lee Roth’s short-lived CBS morning show stint to a screeching halt within a few weeks.
Opie and Anthony will air on all seven stations where Roth replaced Howard Stern in January: WFNY New York, WYSP Philadelphia, WBCN Boston, KLLI Dallas, WNCX Cleveland, WRKZ Pittsburgh and WPBZ West Palm Beach.
Coming days before Winter 2006 Arbitron results will document Roth’s morning ratings disaster, the agreement allows CBS to air a three-hour version of the O&A show that will originate from its WFNY studios. CBS will have control over this portion of the program, which will simulcast uncensored on XM.
After they wrap their CBS show, plans call for the pair to travel the block or so to XM’s midtown Manhattan studio and put in another two-hours that will air exclusively on XM.
Since CBS is beholden to FCC indecency regulations, the first three hours of the morning show will be cleaner than the anything-goes environment the pair enjoy at XM.
Signatures are still being applied to the multi-year agreement, which gives CBS a morning lifesaver that previously paid ratings dividends for the company in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. It gives XM the right to have its star hosts plug the uncensored version of their show on CBS airwaves and further validates satellite radio as a content provider.
The hosts of one of XM’s 10 most-listened-to shows, Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia previously did afternoons for CBS predecessor Infinity Broadcasting at WNEW-FM New York and were simulcast on WYSP and WBCN. Fired after their infamous “Sex For Sam” broadcast, where a couple allegedly had sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral at their urging, the pair sat on the beach for two years before XM hired them in August 2004.
Roth replaced Stern in seven markets in January, when Stern began a new 5-year deal at Sirius Satellite Radio.
CBS Radio and XM officials declined comment.
In addition to inciting anti-indecency crusaders, the deal will generate more fodder for Stern and his legal team. One issue at the center of CBS Radio’s lawsuit against Stern was how he gained financially from plugging Sirius on CBS’ airwaves for more than a year.
