Well in short Opie and Anthony is an American radio show co-hosted by Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia that aired from 1995 to 2014, with comedian Jim Norton serving as third mic[1][2] beginning in 2001. Hughes first met Cumia in 1994 when he held a song parody contest on his night time show at WBAB on Long Island, New York. The pair hit it off, and decided to become a radio team.

The show launched in March 1995 in afternoons at WAAF in Boston, Massachusetts. In June 1998, after an April Fools' Day prank that led to their firing from WAAF, Hughes and Cumia relocated to WNEW in New York City where the show entered national syndication in 2001 by Infinity Broadcasting. They gradually reduced the amount of music played on the show and developed a talk radio format, incorporating "shock jock" humor. In August 2002, the show was cancelled for a controversial segment known as "Sex for Sam". For the next two years, Infinity prevented Hughes and Cumia from being hired elsewhere for the remainder of their contracts.

In October 2004, Opie and Anthony returned to the air in mornings on XM Satellite Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service, from New York City. From April 2006 to March 2009, the first half of the show was simulcast nationwide on terrestrial radio stations owned by CBS Radio. On July 3, 2014, the show ended after SiriusXM fired Cumia for a series of tweets that it claimed were "racially-charged and hate-filled". In order to fulfill their contractual obligations, Hughes and Norton teamed to host Opie with Jim Norton, before eventually splitting to pursue their own respective SiriusXM shows. Cumia launched his own show, The Anthony Cumia Show.

In mid-1994, Gregg "Opie" Hughes was the host of The Nighttime Attitude, a late night music radio show on WBAB on Long Island, New York. In an effort to capitalize on the extensive media coverage of the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, Hughes held a song parody contest for listeners to submit entries based on the trial. Among the thirty or so submissions that he received, one of them was "Gonna Electric Shock O.J." to the tune of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding, performed by Rotgut, a local band featuring Anthony Cumia, a construction worker, on vocals and his brother Joe. The latter travelled to the station while Hughes was doing his show to submit a cassette tape of the parody, and only allowed Hughes to take it. The parody became a hit with the audience, who asked for the song to be played each night. As a result, Hughes invited the Cumias to perform the song live in the studio in September 1994. Recalled Hughes, "Ant and I instantly had each other the rest of the show. I was like, 'Holy shit, dude. That went pretty well. Why don't you come in next week?' Slowly but surely, he started coming in every week". Using the little funds available at the radio station, Hughes secured a small budget for Cumia to be paid for his appearances, though to Cumia, the money was not an issue as he "just wanted to get a foot in the door" in radio.

After Cumia made several more appearances on Hughes's show, the two entered discussions to become a full-time radio team. Hughes had wished to evolve his show to "more than just me on the radio", and knew it could be achieved with Cumia's on-air personality. Cumia accepted, and Hughes pitched the idea to WBAB management with the intent of moving to the morning or afternoon slot, but it was declined. During this time Ron Valeri, the program director at rock station WAAF in Boston, Massachusetts, went to Long Island to visit family and heard the two on the air. He called Hughes and offered them a spot on WAAF.Hughes then assembled an aircheck from tapes of their first shows together, and sent them to WAAF and another station in Dallas, Texas. Both stations wished to hire the duo, which led to their departure at WBAB. WAAF general manager Bruce Mittman recalled that he "almost drove off the road laughing" from listening to them, and subsequently hired them to take over afternoons from Liz Wilde. Before they left WBAB, the station offered Cumia to take over Hughes's night shift, which the two later saw as "a scumbag move" as their bits (excerpts) were being played on the morning show without their permission.[10] Hughes was cautious about moving as he felt unsure if the show's success would translate to a new radio market. Cumia ended his manual labor job, and threw his tools out of his car window while driving in hope of never returning to it.

Hughes and Cumia launched their new weekday afternoon show, Opie and Anthony, at WAAF in March 1995. To their surprise, Valeri left the station soon after their arrival, and the duo came to disagreements over their show with the new program director, Dave Douglas.[13] Cumia recalled the desire to ignore the rules and advice from management and began to play less music and talk more, which changed the dynamic of the show "within months".[14] One of their most notable stunts during their time at WAAF was 100 Grand, a staged giveaway of $100,000 which was hyped on the air for several weeks. When it was time for the duo to give away the prize, the "winning" caller instead received a 100 Grand chocolate bar instead of the money.[15] It was at WAAF where the show started its long running Whip 'em Out Wednesday segment that involves women flashing their breasts to drivers with a "WOW" sticker on their car.[3] In June 1997, nine weeks into the promotion, the show was suspended for two weeks after Hughes and Cumia read out a confidential memo written by the station's management about the campaign on the air. Mittman put an end to the promotion after police contacted him over public safety surrounding it, but claimed the suspension was unrelated and over an "internal matter".[16][17] In addition to their radio show, Hughes and Cumia hosted the television show Real Rock TV on WABU and released Demented World, a compilation album of their radio bits which was released in October 1997 and sold 40,000 copies.[18][19]

In April 1998, Hughes and Cumia were fired from WAAF following their April Fool's Day prank whereby Hughes and Cumia announced that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident in Florida in the company of a Haitian female prostitute. The prank included reports from a fake police officer and news reporter, the latter a friend of Hughes.[20][21] The stunt and firing received national attention from the press,[3] and many listeners believed the story as Menino was on a flight during the prank, so he was out of contact while the event unfolded.[22] Menino was made aware of the prank upon his arrival and responded with a letter of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),[20] pointing out the commission's broadcast regulations prohibit the broadcast of knowingly false information if it causes public harm.[23] The FCC took no action against WAAF or Hughes and Cumia.[20] The station's management suggested the duo have pies thrown at them in a stunt held at the city's square, but the idea was dismissed by the Mayor's office. After WAAF faced the possibility of its broadcasting license challenged for removal, the station fired Hughes and Cumia within a week after the prank, and suspended Mittman for one month and Douglas for one week.[24]

Shortly after their firing, Hughes called the prank "a stupid bit",[25] but both later admitted that the prank was done on purpose so they could leave the station after management offered them a disappointing raise in their salaries.[26] In addition, the pair had hired Robert Eatman as their new agent and entered secret negotiations to move to New York City before the prank had aired.[20] Hughes maintained he never intended to leave Boston, citing the city's growth as a radio market, the show's rise in the ratings, and plans to release a second radio album and enter a national syndication deal.[25] The pair also had an offer to work at a station in Atlanta, Georgia which included a visit to the station, but they declined the offer.[27]

After their firing from WAAF, Hughes recalled that he and Cumia became "a wanted commodity" as they received offers from one station in Atlanta, Georgia, and WXRK and WNEW in New York City. As WXRK was already the flagship station of the popular syndicated morning program The Howard Stern Show, they chose WNEW to make it easier for them to build an audience.[3] They entered a deal with the station's newly hired program director Garry Wall, who wanted them for their talent and ability to attract ratings,[20] which required a meeting with management Infinity Broadcasting, the owner of WNEW, in Washington, D.C.[28]

By mid-June 1998, Hughes and Cumia had signed a three-year contract with Infinity Broadcasting,[29][30] and Opie and Anthony began in afternoons from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. later that month[31][32][33] with Rick Del Gado assigned as their new producer.[34] The show grew in popularity over the next two years to become a top 10 rated show.[35] In June 1999, the hosts received a Radio and Records Achievement Award for Rock Air Personality of the Year.[36] When WNEW switched radio formats from classic rock to talk in September 1999, the show held an on-air mock funeral to bury the records the station no longer played.[37] The show then changed its starting times from 3:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.[33]