As widely rumored earlier this week, Opie and Anthony have added four additional markets to their synidcation list - bringing the total number of markets up to 11 total.
Starting next Monday, June 5th, the first half of The Opie & Anthony Show will be heard in Detroit (WXYT 1270AM), Columbus (WAZU 107.1FM) and Rochester (WZNE 94.1FM). On Monday, June 26th, O&A will be added to XM Satellite Radio's hometown - Washington, FC (WJFK 106.7FM).
While this growth is undoubtedly a good thing for O&A, the question still remains whether the same benefits will be felt by XM Satellite Radio. Several stations have picked up XM advertising spots, and XM is freely plugged throughout the terrestrial broadcast (and even in the CBS Radio press release), but whether this is driving the desire for listeners to convert is still up in the air.
Full Disclosure -
I am a huge Stern fan, but also listen to O&A from time to time and enjoy it as well. This debate happens because with O&A always knocking Stern, it polarizes people and forces them to take sides. Plus, this whole debate happens because O&A are constantly trying to fuel an O&A vs. Stern feud because it is a smart way for them to appear to the general public AS important as Stern in a casual fans mind. After all, if it seems like a “war”, it looks as if they are on the same level as Stern if Howard is actually in a “war” with them. Howard knows this, that’s why you will BARELY EVER hear him mention the O&A show when the opposite is true seemingly EVERY SINGLE DAY.
To the guy who mentioned that Howard lying by saying that he had offers to return to terrestrial radio , and compared that to O&A claiming they turned down TV offers too avoid becoming too similar to Stern and Imus: - Maybe Howard lied about getting “specific” offers to come back to terrestrial radio, but if anyone really believes that the “powers that be” in terrestrial radio would NOT want Stern back on regular radio in a heartbeat, you are either crazy, or the worst businessman in history.
With the whole O&A “pest” thing and all of the outrageous publicity stunts that they do and encourage fans to do (not that Stern is not guilty of this), you really think that they wouldn’t want a TV show because it would be similar to what Imus and Stern do? Riiiight. I know Howard claims to have invented everything, but to say that the O&A style and format was not HEAVILY influenced by the Howard Stern show, is just a plain old lie. All morning shows are very similar, so now why would they NOT want a TV show because THAT would be too similar. Maybe they should not broadcast through microphones, or maybe not broadcast through FM radio because Stern and Imus do it. TV is just another form of broadcast. That was a VERY LAME O&A excuse for “we are just not big enough yet for a TV show.”… yet.
What I don’t understand is why O&A feel like it is so important to tear down Howard Stern. Even if there is a personal beef (which there is), it seems to me like it is a dumb move alienating all of Howards fans that are left listening to them on his old stations. I know for one, it was a HUGE O&A turn-off for me.
For them to constantly say that Howard didn’t make much of a difference to Sirius makes them just look like idiots. Let’s just be real for a minute. Have you ever heard ANYONE, EVER say, “hey, I want to get satellite radio…the one that has Opie and Anthony.” But on the other side, it seemed like EVERYONE wanted the satellite radio “that Howard Stern is on.” The brand awareness alone is immeasurable.
Not to mention, for them to say that Howard has no listeners, is ridiculous. I alone know maybe 2 dozen people that have satellite radios and every one has Sirius.
O&A are funny, the show is good and I am sure the show will only get bigger and better from here, but for them to constantly knock or compare themselves to Stern or for them to even think for one second they are even in the same league yet…. they should first compare resumes.
Remember, if Stern sucks now, he has no listeners, O&A is the new, happening, “in” thing, when they were handed all of the markets that Stern built on a silver platter, it should be no problem at all for the O&A show to be pulling in even bigger ratings that Stern had in his markets….or at least the same…....or at least ¾…….or at least half. To me, the ratings say it all, they just came out, and CBS / FREE-FM’s are still sinking. Is someone gonna say that WASN’T because the Stern show left?
Maybe Stern was not offered a deal to return to terrestrial radio. Maybe terrestrial radio has decided that it works much better now that they have half of the listeners they had before. Plus, they probably feel that it a better system now that the advertising rates in all of the markets are much more affordable. Most of all, they don’t want Howard back because they really like the idea of advertising XM radio every morning along with also allowing competing channels to have some morning listeners this decade.
WOW, MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE WASTED ALL THAT TYPING ON A 4 MONTH OLD THREAD
oops, sorry about the all caps.