Morning radio shock-jocks Opie and Anthony have been let go by CBS radio. The company is doing a complete overhaul to New York City’s K-Rock which as of today, became a Top-40 station.
The two still have their job at Sirius XM. They were doing their K-Rock show from 6am to 9am and they would then trudge over to the XM studios and do a satellite only show till around 11am. Sirius XM was also simulcasting the K-Rock show on satellite.
Though this sucks for Opie and Anthony on a personal financial level, it will make for a better radio show on Sirius XM. Not only will they not have to worry about the FCC, they wont have to adhere to a strict schedule for commercial breaks. That got to be very annoying.
Opie and Anthony were getting good ratings on K-Rock. They weren’t getting Howard Stern ratings, but I doubt Howard Stern would be getting the numbers he got only five years ago on terrestrial radio. It’s a different world today. People buy iPods and they download music online. They buy satellite radios. The people left listening to terrestrial radio are the ones that are too cheap to buy either an iPod or a satellite radio.
I can’t imagine that this demographic is real desirable with advertisers.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Opie and Anthony were not getting good ratings, they were almost close to the bottom in the morning drive. Stern left at the top of his game, so the excuse some of you pest are trying to give is just that a excuse.
Howard Stern OWNS radio! This is So clear now!
The most recent Arbitron numbers came in showing that they were #2 in males 18 – 49 and #3 males 25 – 54. How is that close to the bottom?
It wasn’t O&A’s ratings that caused the format change, it was how the station did when they weren’t on the air.
http://www.arbitron.com/radio_stations/home.htm
Time Period: Mo-Su 6A-12A
January 2009 – Dates in 1/8/2009 to 2/4/2009
21 WXRK-FM Alternative 1.71.51.5
That their rating. They were number 21 in the morning drive. Come on, now you’re trying to spin this.
I’m not spinning anything. I said that in the most recent Arbitron ratings, they were #2 in males 18 to 49. That was the demographic they were hired for. Your are showing not the ratings for just the O&A show (M-F, 6am to 9am) but for the entire station for the entire week. You are showing from 6am to Midnight for the entire week, even the weekends. I already pointed out that the ratings for the entire station were down.
That is why they changed the format of the entire station.
You don’t let go of a successful radio show if you flip formats. Its obvious that they were not doing well in the ratings and that’s why they were let go. They were handed over twenty markets around the country and they loss all of them. That’s why they were let go.
Do you honestly think O&A could have worked at a top-40 station? Howard never appeared on a top-40 station. For K-Rock to go to top-40, they had to reprogram the entire lineup.
You forget that Howard’s ratings were sliding even before he left K-Rock.
Shock Jock’s Audience Is Beating Him to the Door
I don’t think O&A ever got 20 stations when they came back to terrestrial radio. I don know that on many of them, they weren’t even given a live spot. They were on taped delay.
The problem that these radio stations don’t understand is that they will never get the audiences they once had. The people that used to listen to terrestrial radio now own iPods and/or satellite radios. If someone loves music, why on earth would they not buy an iPod? Terrestrial radio is left with an audience comprised of people who are too cheap to buy a $150 iPod or a $40 satellite radio. Why would advertisers want to buy ad spots for them?
“Do you honestly think O&A could have worked at a top-40 station?”
Do you think if their ratings were high, that they would have had to change to a top 40′s station? This is not the first time that they change the programing on K Rock. If you remember, it was all talk, then it went back to alternative.
“You forget that Howard’s ratings were sliding even before he left K-Rock.”
But yet he was still a force to be recon with, with his show still doing extremely well in his markets he was in. His departure hurt almost all the stations that carried him in the ratings and advertising money. Can you say the same for Opie and Anthony?
Come on.
Nick wrote:
Once again, O&A were doing well in their key demographics. They were #2 in males 18 – 49. It was the rest of the station’s lineup that was suffering and caused the change.
Nick wrote:
OK. I don’t know what that means. A “force to be recon with”. The fact is, radio ratings have been sliding even before Howard left terrestrial radio. Terrestrial radio is a dying medium. There will always be a market for it, but it will never go back to where it was. The suits at CBS are smoking crack if they thing they can get either the Arbitron numbers or the ad revenue they got five years ago. They have a smaller audience AND the audience they are left with is less desirable to advertisers.
“They were #2 in males 18 – 49.”
Demographics are fine but how much money did it contribute to the station? How much of that demographic contribute to ratings or to the station itself? It must have not been much if they were let go.
“OK. I don’t know what that means. A “force to be recon with””
Whoops i meant to say force to be reckoned with
“Terrestrial radio is a dying medium. There will always be a market for it, but it will never go back to where it was.”
You’re right, Terrestrial radio is a dying medium and they have no one but themselves to blame because of their monopolising of the medium and their constant fear of being censored or pleasing certain advertising groups but it does not excuse the performance of Opie And Anthony. I know you’re a fan and i respect that but you can’t turn a blind eye on where they were proffessionaly when they were let go. If they had better ratings or demographics, you know, KNOW they would have not been let go. Maybe this is a blessing for them to continue with out restrictions on Sirius if that was the case for their falling ratings. So they can go full on creatively with out people breathing down their necks. Who knows, Maybe that will be the case.
Take care:)
Nick wrote:
How much money did it contribute to the station? You need to go back and re-read everything I wrote. The money to be made by advertising on radio has drastically decreased. It’s not because of talent, it’s because of technology. The people that buy things — the very people advertisers covet — have bought MP3 players and/or satellite radios and have left terrestrial radio.
They ain’t coming back either.
The people today that listen to terrestrial radio are the people that either don’t want to or simply cannot spend money on either an MP3 player or a satellite radio. Either one of these two reasons make these people unappealing to those that purchase advertising.
the terrestrial show sucked. whatever success o&a had in the late 1990′s – early 2000′s just didn’t translate well when compared to the xm show. i hated listening to their censored crap and constant commercial brakes on the little time that i have on my morning commute. sorry they took a hit to their wallets, but their show will be better for it.
hey jerkoff,have you heard the whole country is in financial crisis.People should be cutting back on all non essential purchases.To say that the people who are left listening to terrestrial radio are too cheap to go buy an ipod or sattelite Is an ignorant statement. Though it may be a small amount of money, someone who just lost a $150k a year job and is now working at shoprite and cant pay their mortgage might find it offensive to be called too cheap. You probably are one of those people who think it is ok to buy things on credit that you know you cant afford just so everyone else thinks your a big spender or maybe mommy and daddy pay your way or maybe you are one of the few who are not feeling the pinch from our current economic state,whatever the case I think you sound like a douschebag for making comments like that.I hope you lose all of your material posessions and are forced to live on the streets and panhandle for money to eat.
opie and anthony are no talent stern ripoffs. they obsess about howard stern and try to be as funny as him but they never succeed. its funny because the only topic on their show is howard and the sex in the church thing, a ripoff of one of howards games. its all jealousy howard number 1 dopie and anthony 21 looks like howard got the last laugh
@john: I’m not getting the Stern ripoff thing. I listen to Stern and I listen to O&A. They’re two totally different shows. And I cannot remember the last time they talked about the whole Sex for Sam controversy.
How were Opie and Anthony getting good ratings!? Twisting around the “Male demo” ratings are pathetic. Like Stern said, he doesn’t need to be #1 in a demo, he just needs to be #1 period. Their show sucked, flipping formats is an excuse. Would Howard be getting the ratings now that he did back then? Of course. Radio started slipping badly AFTER he left. He was basically carrying the medium.
And, yes, they are Stern ripoffs. To suddenly ripping their producer, to coming on the air and saying that their “Wackpack is better then Howard’s wackpack”, and then having characters on their show that resembled people on Howard’s show, etc. They even added a freaking comedian to the show. Stupid crap like Artie falling asleep on the show, suddenly one of them fall asleep on the show. Howard goes to therapy over anger issues all of a sudden one of them goes to therapy over anger issues, etc., etc. They even resorted to having “radio wars” in new markets they went into like Howard used to do. It resorted to them getting hammered regularly by DJs in areas like Cleveland and Philadelphia, and their excuse was that they weren’t getting enough “support” from the stations.
@The Man: Who on O&A went to therapy over anger issues? I didn’t know O&A had a wackpack, but I haven’t listened all week.
Howard’s ratings were slipping compared to HOWARD. He was being compared to himself. So if he got a 7.9 instead of a 8.5, but was star far and away superior to everyone else, and still bringing in millions per year, how is that bad?
“The people left listening to terrestrial radio are the ones that are too cheap to buy either an iPod or a satellite radio.”
Won an IPOD in a competition (whilst listening to terrestial radio, ironically)-sold it. Saved myself a fortune in downloading crap.
Had Sirius (years ago) sold that when i worked out i used it for just three stations (out of 100+), saved myself from listening to a pile of crap.
How’s Sirius’s new ‘luxury tax’ Rick? Yet another case of letting business (in my opinion) screw the consumer.
@tony: If you were spending money to download music, you were doing it wrong.
Rick-sold the Ipod UNUSED.So i never downloaded anything. Are you advocating illegally downloading music? LOL
As for Sirius, how you getting on with their new luxury tax, what is it $2 per set/unit per month. All because (in my opinion) they are too cheap to pay for artist royalties-so you and other subscribers can instead.
Now that doesn’t happen with terrestrial radio.
@tony: LOL indeed Tony. LOL indeed.
Ummmm, yeah, Howard would be getting those great ratings. Last I checked, IPod and other things like that exist, and he still managed to help Sirius get almost 20 million subscribers. Stop trying to justify 0.0′s failures. It always goes back to Daddy Stern.