Late last week, the long-running bromance between radio hosts Opie And Anthony was called into question after a racist tirade on Twitter by Anthony Cumia caused a media frenzy — and soon, Cumia revealed that his words had caused SiriusXM to terminate his contract.
As the Opie and Anthony brouhaha coincided with the weekend of Independence Day, next steps for both Anthony Cumia and co-host Gregg “Opie” Hughes remained unclear.
Initially, many fans of the show speculated that the SiriusXM firing was orchestrated by one or both of the hosts in order to move to a potentially more lucrative podcasting format. In the past, the pair had leveraged controversies to strategically advance their popularity and fan base… and it seemed that this incident might be another in the same vein.
Over the weekend, Cumia deleted nearly every one of his existing tweets, leaving a scant few — including this one:
Carlton and me. Besties! pic.twitter.com/S2BhBpe6Vk
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 5, 2014
No reason.
Afterwards, Cumia tweeted frequently about a “compound” show, and indicated that he planned to tell fans what his next steps might be:
Really appreciate all the support. Best fans ever. Keep giving them hell. I’ll be doing a Compound show asap to lay out the future. Thanks!
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 7, 2014
Now it looks like any questions about whether Opie and Anthony colluded to purposely end the show can be put to rest — as it has been revealed that Hughes will attempt to continue the show on SiriusXM without Anthony Cumia.
Fans are still up in arms over the firing, but Anthony says that by August, he hopes to be broadcasting from his private studio, and he tells The Week :
“I’m getting the Live From the Compound Show up and running, handling some logistics stuff and getting the stuff together. In the meantime, I’ll be putting out a couple promos. I’m definitely ready. Hoping to air the first week of August.”
Of the outpouring of support, the embattled shock jock adds:
“I love all the support. It really is refreshing to see in this business. I think they’re making an impact. They’re making their voices heard, that is absolutely great. They’re displeased with what happened and letting the powers that be know that with their dollars.”
Opie is likely to continue broadcasting with show fixture and popular comic Jim Norton co-hosting, and Norton took to Twitter to defend the decision, tweeting:
People calling me and @OpieRadio traitors for not walking, please understand we’re under contract. We love @AnthonyCumia more than you know.
— Jim Norton (@JimNorton) July 7, 2014
Had a long talk with @SiriusXM me and @JimNorton will be back on the radio next monday to start to figure this out. https://t.co/ZQk35lUyGJ
— opie radio (@OpieRadio) July 7, 2014
Cumia appears to be okay with his friends’ plans to move forward, and he said:
“I understand the position they’ve been put in, I love those guys. I completely get it.”
Will you continue to listen to Opie and Anthony without Anthony?
[Image: Anthony Cumia, Fox News]