I cancelled my satellite radio service on Saturday. I had been thinking about doing so for a couple of months now. I love the Opie and Anthony Show and have been a fan since 1998, but I'm either moving on from it or have been made to move on from it and I think it more the latter since my easy distraction from the show began only after the merger/hostile takeover of XM by Sirius.
I can't help but feel the Opie and Anthony Show has been neutered by Sirius management and examples of this abound from their being shoved into a smaller studio when their old studio remained not only functional but actually remained. Listeners who used to regularly come in to watch the show on XM and occasionally participate on-air (giving us for better or for worse characters like Stalker Patti, the retarded Laverne and Shirley, Big A, Pat from Moonachie, Tippy Tom, and Bobo) could no longer do so. Interns, so vital to the show both to keep it running smoothly in the background and occasionally comedy fodder for the show were at one time taken away and although now, after much elapsed time have returned, they are not allowed to participate on the show as they once were despite the fact that such participation gave us the likes of Sam Roberts, Nathaniel, Derek, Travis, and Danny all of whom went from interns who got a break on the air to full-fledged underpaid employees as well as interns who didn't get hired like David, Pat "Fucking" Duffy, Jared, Bob, "Wild" Bill, and Noah but who provided the show with hours of on-air entertainment. Modern Sirius management would have prevented the show from acquiring and showcasing their talents.
The Opie and Anthony Show have not done live gigs for their listeners in quite some time and certainly not with the frequency that was common back on XM and WNEW nor has the show broadcasted from other cities in years or been able to do any events like the Comedy and Animation festivals of yesteryear. Radio contests have all but disappeared, having been reduced to practically random callers when they do have something to give away. I don't even remember when their last true contest was but I assure you they were all on XM and terrestrial radio. The Eggnog Drinking Contest, Sex for Sam, Money Honey, Staple Gun Roulette, The Voyeur Bus, The Rat Eating Contest (which introduced us to the foul-mouthed, ever ready with the insult Frenchy who turned what was supposed to be a disgusting dish by virtue of it being rat meat and prepared it so well that people were actually asking for seconds), What Would You Do for Britney Spears Tickets?, Gay Marco's bid to win N Sync tickets, the ever infamous Most Offensive Song Contest, Homeless Shopping Spree, the 55 Gallon Drum Challenge, Has-Been Corner...and that's just what immediately comes to mind. The past two years? I can't think of thing done that would qualify for classically memorable in that vein.
Don't get me wrong, the talk part of the show is still compelling when they have things to talk about and guests who are willing to be interviewed. However, the element of randomness has been taken from the show and that is one of the Opie and Anthony Show's great strengths in that they could put shit together on the fly and make it into good radio. But without participation from listeners in studio or from interns; without contests and the jockeying for the host's attention/praise/approval that comes from such contests/promotions/giveaways, that chaotic element is lost and causes the show to suffer.
Even the loss of the rivalry between the two companies hurts the show and not just from the comedy crucible that is competition but because many old bits where that competition is showcased have now fallen into an abyss of sorts. This also goes for classic bits done by the show. Anything that runs afoul of corporate policy cannot be aired even though it has already been aired so more bits fall into the abyss never to be heard from again unless you've been obsessively recording the show. And such bits require quite a memory on the part of the listener because Opie and Anthony can't even mention the bits on air that they can't play to help listeners find them. That Most Offensive Song Contest? Even though it aired on REGULAR radio and no songs had any language in them that would run afoul of the F.C.C. (that is not to say some of the songs were not censored to make them F.C.C. compliant), the contest cannot be done again or even replayed on SATELLITE RADIO! Satellite Radio if you will recall, is the HBO of radio. You can curse, talk graphically about sex and other bodily functions, use ethnic slurs, and all sorts of other things that the F.C.C. would normally fine a radio station for but even with that elevated status and mind you, this is also a service being paid for, such a contest is no longer possible on satellite radio (and yes, technically it would be permissible on terrestrial radio still so long as your company would stand behind you but that would be less likely given the consolidation of media in general to just a few companies that started in the mid-1990s thanks to deregulation so no, it's not you when you wonder if radio really has gotten worse over the years...it actually has!)
So while I would occasionally stop what I was doing and listen intently to what was being said on the show, I found myself doing it less and less because so much more of the show had become filler and again, and I can't stress this enough, I don't actually blame the show for this. I thought about it for weeks. My original plan was to stick it out to the end of their contract in October when I felt the show would actually end because Opie's disgust with the company is more than obvious but after weeks of thought, I pulled the plug on my subsciption (a subscriber since October 2004, when the show debuted on XM Satellite Radio). I don't know what I will do with my newfound free time. I imagine it will take a few weeks before it all settles in and I begin to rediscover those things I had generally kept on hold or had otherwise put aside but I look forward to those days.
In a way, I am free. I am not happy with how it has come about but it is done.
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