As long as Stern is there, O&A will be nothing but an after thought to Sirius. Just one of the many problems with this company.

Stern, Oprah, Martha Stewart, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews....

Opie and Anthony are about as important to SiriusXM as Fez is to the Ron and Fez show........

As far as I know, nobody rushed to satellite for eight hours of Bruce on a loop all week. If O&A didn't make them any money, they wouldn't have renewed the contract.

All their bitching aside, looking at the circunstances, the company is just using them to hold on to a chunk of subscribers until something new works. Sirius wants top-40 cash flow with younger listeners, but right now has a bunch of truckers listening to talk radio.

You are 100% correct...it turned into truck driver and 45 year old middle aged men radio....SiriusXM has no idea what to do

Who else has the time to listen to a 4 hour talk show?

Full disclosure: Truck driver/equipment operator, late 20's

I can barely find time to listen to just one Joe Rogan podcast, let alone a 4 hour show 5 days a week.

I'm so far behind.

During the summer, I work really long days, so I was caught up on everything, even Ron & Fez most days, but I've only half-listened to 3 or 4 O&A shows in the last 3 weeks.

Probably 5 episodes of Skeptic Tank behind, and 6 or 7 Joe Rogan podcasts.

[deleted]

A freelance artist. Exciting, I know.

me. it's on in my ear at work every day.

And what, good sir, is your chosen trade?

I do computer stuff.

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I started listening sophomore year of college and now I'm 24. They're still picking up new listeners. They give a lot of exposure for comedians, but comedians like Bill Patrice and Louie lead people back to the show through youtube clips like the Lizard Rumsfeld bit.

ya cuz at it's core, it's useless. EVERYONE has a smartphone. And the younger demo is damn sure not paying 200 whatever the fuck dollars for music they steal offline and play on their phones, or pandora, or spotify, or 100 other music options. I honestly don't get what they think their demo is.

wow - that is a good way of putting it. Don't they realize that exact attitude is what killed terrestrial radio?

They never will, which will only make radio more profitable on the short-term, as they fire all the talent and turn it into a perpetually-yapping youth-culture ad machine.

I thought the DMB channel was only a "limited engagement"?

It was.

Eminem hsa a show on Sirius? I didn't know that. That's really cool.

A whole entire station...and a show..

It always felt like they were waiting around for Stern to step aside and retire, hopefully to move into his studio and have a more dedicated management staff around them.

Im not sure you understand the difference in revenue.... the boys are not on Sterns level...they dont bring in advertising like Howard does. Howard gets 50 million per year...the boys are down near 1 million per year.

Add it up....

Sterns salary has very little to do with advertising rates on a subscription service. Sirius uses him as their anchor just like a Wal-Mart and for some reason still think they can't survive without him.

my point is this....its $200 to run a 25 second spot on O*A and $2000 to run one on Howard....

they arent the same level... in any regard.

Do you have any proof of this add fee difference?

if this is true - the sub should by an ad - there must be enough of us to put together $200

i'll throw in on it !

so where do we fund it and what do we say?

oh, and can we verify the $ amount first

I don't think his numbers are accurate. I'm sure Howard bills a bit more than the bbbboys, but Yimmy said today that his buddy's company was told they have to spend $100,000 to advertise on the show. I really doubt that SiriusXM is making advertisers buy ads in blocks of 500 commercials.

That's 10 a day for a month. Which is about what you normally hear from sponsors.

Hmmm, if true, making advertisers buy ads in year-long blocks is probably a shitty decision in this economy.

Regardless, the thing Sirius needs to realize is that they are NOT going to live for very long unless they invest in ORIGINAL CONTENT. They've bungled everything since the merger, the company is shit and deserves to die.

Damn... I may consider running an ad then!

I wasn't arguing their value, but if Howie leaves then O&A become top dog by default. Howie listeners could possibly become O&A listeners, but who would they listen to if both shows leave?

They already used his old studio once.. I wonder if that's why he's still obsessed with them.

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I don't think I've heard Jimmy as adamant that they should leave in October than just now; he's always hedging his bet but I think this was the last straw.

they have no alternative... radio is dying. Podcasts are free.... they should shut up and cash their checks.

When can we expect the "Fuck management 11/15/13" upload?

About 55 minutes ago, check my channel.

I love you and your channel FYI. Listen to it daily (and i'm an XM subscriber)

You are a prince.

God damn Steve-O your the man

Fuck Jimmy. I bet he'd change his opinion if O&A decide to just retire.

I would pay $20 a month to listen to O&A daily if they wanted to do a webcast. They can even make their own app, maybe sell the TV rights too.

with sirius throwing ''2-day-workweek howard'' a birthday bash, albeit being sued by him for 300 milion, and now demanding 350.000$ of royalties from the boys for an anniversary show it all sounds like a monty python sketch. they need to leave the company after september, there is no other option if they want to keep integrity.

And when they leave, I'll be going with them. Fuck Howard stern and the rest of their bullshit lineup; O and A are the only reason I have kept SIRIUS beyond the free trials.

Agreed 100%. Since when does a company shakedown their employees for 350k? Normally they show appreciation, not extort them.

How about you just parrot verbatim what they already batted for an hour on the show everyday this week.

how about your parents being siblings

I know they said it during the show, but this is a legitimate shakedown by their own company. It's reprehensible...

Absolutely. I doubt it's in the contract. I really hope this is the last straw that makes them leave that company...

They should ignore the demand for $350,000 and do the event anyway. I have no idea why they listen to the management of Sirius. Tell them to drop dead.

Something tells me this can't happen. There might be a potential lawsuit on there hands if they continue the event without SiriusXM's permission. They are under contract they can't just do whatever the hell they want. \SiriusXM has the upper hand here, and if the boys could continue with the event without SiriusXM's support they would. After all they claim it will cost nothing to very little.

i'm sure erock is worried as all hell about the boys leaving.

Yeah, they'd basically be fucking Erock, Sam, Sal and everybody else out of a job if they left.

Erock and Sam could definitely get other jobs around Sirius. Sam especially has made a lot of obvious connections and has shown himself to be a good employee.

I like how you conspicuously left Sal out.

Sals a dick but Travis is cool.

With Spotify, Pandora, iTunes Radio, Slacker Radio, etc. there is no reason to pay to listen to Sirius XM for music. And with the pervasiveness of free podcasts, Sirius XM better hold on to quality original content or they won't be around much longer.

Unfortunately, O&A are kept around as a bargaining chip against Stern. He knows that if he leaves, they are next in line to fill the "shock jock, 18-49 single male" demo. That's the only reason Sirius XM has held on to them.

Why do these shows even need satellite anymore?

They could go straight from studio to the net, keep the format and the ads. Run it free for a month, then charge a fee that went straight to their wallets.

They wouldn't make nearly as much money and they would probably see that as accepting defeat.

You're kidding, right? If they charged $5 a month and got conservatively half a million subscribers... That's $10mil a year for each of them with no ads. How is it accepting "defeat"? Defeat would be sticking with a company that tries to fuck them over, shake them down and extort money from them (on one more than one occasion!) Winning would be starting their own thing and being in charge of their brand.

Your "conservative" estimate is triple the amount of twitter followers they have. The show is not that big. And they will lose the staff.

I hate to break it to you, but most of their listeners don't have a Twitter account. Only a small percentage

It still remains the only way to gauge listeners, since Sirius withholds that information from them.

You don't get to throw out a made up estimate like half a million and call it conservative based on nothing.

any idea on podcast downloads? that would be a good indicator

also I'd go $5 a month - cheaper than my current sub

They would gain a ton of overseas subscribers. I'd love to give the boys some cash, to get a decent phone app and a good un-fucked with show. I know a few guys in the UK in my immediate group of friends that are O&A fans, mostly through Stevie K's youtube and various others.

Not even that. I listen to every minute of every show but don't download the podcast. For me it's just a worst of since I've heard almost all of it.

I also listen to the show and avoid the podcast - still I hear their numbers are good and that might be an indicator of potential audience

Well, Jim Norton has 300k twitter followers. Let's assume that 50% of Jim Norton fans have a twitter account and follow him (although it's probably more like 10%). That's 600k. Take away 100k just for the heck of it = 500k

Jim Norton is on the Tonight Show. Your math is ridiculous and you should never start a business. A realistic estimate would be half of o+a's followers.

Just because someone is a fan of yours doesn't mean they're a guarantee to give you money.

Have you listened to the show? A vast majority of the callers are truckers. They need satellite radio because they are constantly changing signal areas and would have to keep changing the dial.

You cannot base business decisions, particularly when there are millions of dollars at stake, on rub_erl's based-on-nothing estimates of how many fans the boys have and what percentage would pay.

You are literally pulling overly optimistic numbers from thin air.

I don't know how long you've been listening but every contract extension they've signed was preceded by endless threats of starting a podcast. Its the only leverage they have since terrestrial radio won't touch them.

And that was without a doubt the worst structured post I've ever made. Somewhere in that convoluted mess is a point.

And that was without a doubt the worst structured post I've ever made. Somewhere in that convoluted mess is a point.

You honestly think that's an efficient method to project a subscription-based business' sales?

• Take every single person that follows Jim on twitter
• Multiply by err 2
• Minus 100k for no reason
• ???
• PROFIT

Jim Norton has over 300k twitter followers.

Partly because of his career away from the show. Op's and Ant's are the numbers you want to look at

I don't think that's a reliable gauge. About 50% of my twitter followers are complete strangers. And I don't tweet anything funny or interesting.

500.000 subscribers? You are so delusional it's embarassing.

I think I'm pretty spot-on. Looking at your posts, you just seem like a troll that starts shit. Go look at your posts. You're an embarrassment to yourself.

Ew.

Well, no one seems to agree with you, thats pretty sad. Have you considered killing yourself? If not, go check some numbers of popular podcasts (which are free and most likely way more known than O&A) then use your brain.

Fuck off, troll.

You actually think half a million people would pay $5 a month for a podcast? You're delusional.

Absolutely, i live in Holland and i would pay $5- a month to hear the boys, you will have a lot of freeloaders i'll give you that but they have a huge fan base and what us $5- these days?

Yep, UK fan who would happily pay $5 a month to hear uncut, quality, O&A. $5 per month is fucking nothing for the entertainment i've had from these guys.

I agree, and I would too. But the vast majority of listeners to these shows aren't hard core.

yes. and no.

Nobody's going to pay $5/month for a podcast when everything else is free.

Nobody will pay $5 a month to listen to a live streaming 4-hour radio show, 5 days a week? Numerous people that pay $17 a month just to listen to them.

Nope, people wont pay $5 for a podcast.

500,000 subscribers is not a conservative number.

I seriously doubt they would get 500,000 people paying $5/month for the show if they did it through their own studio. Do you think they would get as many guests on the show? Don't you think guests are a huge part of the show? What about the staff and the resources they have with sirius ?

If their revenue was $30,000,000 they wouldn't get $10mil each. What about the staff they would need, running the studio, website, distribution of the show etc

I'm saying I think the show would be on a lower level if they did it alone through the net - and so I don't think they would want to do it.

Well yeah, it would be winning if they became independent and the show was still great - I just don't think the show would be.

I think they'll become bigger when they go the podcast route. When Joe Rogan did it, he blew up. Same with Carolla. SiriusXM is holding them down. When they become a bigger name, they'll get good guests. And they have lots of loyal guests and famous friends. They have one of the biggest fanbases in radio.

Nowadays when people do media tours they go to la and do the podcasts. It's almost as big as talk shows now

What they need to do is mend bridges with Adam Carolla and make a deal to move to his network... Even if they went it alone, Adam has proven that free distribution online with ads works. They might not do as well at first, but being able to return to their roots without fear of being fired would bring back the listeners. Hell, I think you under estimate how many would pay to hear them if Sirius wasn't involved.

Of all the biggest podcasts out there, zero of them charge for their content. O&A are not going to change that. The only way to make money on podcasts is ads. Charging $5, or any amount for an online show would just lead to 90% of your listeners finding it for free somewhere, especially when every single one of your competitors has a free show.

Steve Dahl tried the same thing and the rumor is that he only has 10,000 - 20,000 subscribers.

How many people download the O&A podcast now? When it is free?

The advantage to satellite is being able to listen live in the car. For now. Mobile WiFi will fix that but it ain't there yet.

I don't even listen to this using my car radio anymore, just the phone app. I hook it up through my car's bluetooth, so if they switched to a podcast it would only make my life easier because I wouldn't have to deal with the app being a piece of shit. I realize that I am an exception because I have a newer car.

I do the same thing, buy I hate Sirius so much at this point that I dropped their service all together and get my fix the next day via methods I'd rather not mention. If they'd fix the app or lower their online price I'd happily go back to paying them.

Same exact situation with me. I wanna support the boys but from what I have heard about the app why would I pay for crap when my methods now are free and work perfectly

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Agreed. If Bubba the Love Sponge can do it on his own, there's hope for all of us.

Except nobody gives a shit about Bubba the Love Sponge and his shitty podcast.

That's my point. Even he made a living selling his own show. Built his own studio.

Lots of people do.

I see a disgusting amount of Bubba Army mudflaps.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this. I doubt Bubba is making any money on his podcast, but I could be wrong.

I guess you don't know how bad RadioIO is doing, and how unhappy the customers are.

But for these $5- they could add a whole backend where people can login, have a forum and all that kind of stuff, not just the podcast but sell it as a bigger experience, like you sad live shows, chat sessions and stuff.

I don't know if they would get 500K subscribers but 200k to a 250K should be in the realms of possibilities, $5- per months is for the hardcorefans not much money really. I would pay for a full XM subscription if i could to listen to the show.

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Sad live shows. Interesting.

they have fuck-you money. opie probably has 20mil+ in the bank. It doesn't cost much to start a podcast. bandwidth is the biggest thing. they just need a mixer, some mics, and a laptop. it's called an investment. like what opie did for his brother to start his restaurant, fh riley's

400 New York Avenue in the heart of Huntington Village.

As an O&A fan, they've never stopped bitching about management. Completely deserved, but each year when their contract comes up, they still re-sign. Until they stop bluffing and leave, it won't change. I'll follow them wherever they go, and would be more than happy to cancel my SiriusXM subscription, the service is shit. But right now, the money is still too good for them to do it.

However, I doubt they would stay together if they leave. Opie and Anthony have literally nothing in common other than the radio show.

I think Opie's already said he's going to "go raise a couple of kids" if the show ends.

he has said hes finally got "fuck you" money...but that is yet to be seen considering he has two kids and fancy taste

That's hard to say. They have plenty in common, including a 20 year history of being big time radio stars. I think most of their problems stem from the stress of the job and having to talk to each other every day all day.

Not to mention, part of what makes the radio show good is them going out and living separate lives. If they were hanging out all the time, the show would just be a lot more rehashing shit that happened the night before. That only really works when it is a story being told to fresh ears.

It is a tough situation. Their gig requires them to get along and have chemistry with one another. But to keep that up, they need to keep their distance to some extent. There are very few people in this world with whom I could spend 5 hours a day, 5 days a week with and not end up hating them. Much less every day for years at a time.

I agree, and I think Jimmy is the one that is holding the show together. I will generally just skip through any shows without a third mic as most of it is just retelling stories about back when they were younger and we've all heard them a hundred times. I know we're more super fans than most, but I have really grown extremely tired of Opie 95% of the time, but I can't get enough of that sweater boy cutie.

Stop whining Opie, you aren't going anywhere. Same with you mister sweater boy cutie. Those mansions and penthouses don't pay for themselves.

Yep. I haven't heard this and probably won't bother. Hearing high-pitch Opie and indignant Jimmy? Not for me. Ant is generally close-mouthed about serious issues. Sadly, I tend to take their little whining rants with a spoonful of salt. How much is real and how much is "good radio"?.

I'm waiting for Opie to snap and go up on the roof with a rifle and start picking people off. Howard would make them pay HIM to show up and do anything other than his regular show. Honestly, they should do it on their own anyway- Self-promote on their twitter and FB, drag every living body from the past into it, and do it as content for the podcast. Don't pay sirius a dime, and tell them to go fuck themselves.
Why should they pay Sirius? They've already proven they can't do anything in a timely or effective manner, since everything seems to be an exercise in deniability and ineptitude. Their only real skill seems to be creating memos full of corporate jargon and run-on sentences.

No way - they bitched about management?

Anyone understand why they're asking for money? Is it to pay for the staff or just the right to use the show to do that?

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I was wondering the same thing. Is SXM actually asking for a check, or demanding some kind of guarantee that the event take in $350,000 in revenue?

There's always money in Ant's Rocky Dennis chin.

I have a feeling this time they really will bail on the company when their contract is up.

I hope so!

http://www.reddit.com/r/opieandanthony/comments/1oc82k/im_calling_it_right_niw/ccquqo6

I've only been listening since the boy were on XM. Did they have management issues when they were at WNEW?

They've been bitching since WAAF.

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The show didn't need support back then because it carried itself with its own content and buzz. Also, there wasn't a subscription barrier-to-entry to be aware of the show. People turned on the radio and it was available. XM requires that people seek you out, or have a subscription with your vehicle ... and thus - requires more promotion to secure listeners. Think about it - when's the last time you saw anyone advertising the portable / home listening units. Used to be everywhere - now I almost never see 'em. So their listener-base is people sitting in cars, which get XM included when they bought the car, and then decide whether to keep paying at the end of the free year, or just switch to Pandora or something else free on their phone.

It's why XM gives you deals when you threaten to cancel - because it's expensive for them to find new listeners - and it's cheaper for them to keep the ones they've got.

But yes - they've ALWAYS bitched about management. Always. And they always made it sound like they weren't going to renew as they got closer and closer to renewal. It's part of the gimmick to making the employer think they may lose them. In the WAAF/WNEW days, that would translate to lost advertisers. Now, in the SiriusXM days that translates to lost subscribers.

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This is pretty much why I'm classifying this in the "boy who cried wolf" category. I'll be more than happy if they leave, but until they do, I will continue to assume they're going to renew again.

I'm listening to shows from 2006 on XM and they were bitching for like 2 weeks because they didn't even have heat in their studio.

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Didn't Ant used to fix them before he met Opie?

And waiting makes it cheaper?

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:(

I like hearing the bitching because it is always so outrageous.

Was it ever explained what the 350k was for? Advertising or stage and hardware? I can't figure this out.

They want the 350k in exchange for all the promotion OnA are going to do for their own event on their SiriusXM radio show. So Sirius is saying if u are going to advertise ur own event on our platform, we want you to pay us for it.

I've heard Adam Carolla claim it costs him 9000 a month to just to host his podcast. Not sure if this is true but to have a legitimate show costs a lot of money. If I'm mistaken Carolla's podcast operates at a loss if it wasn't for all the live events he does. That's where he makes his money. To have a legitimate daily podcast 5 times a week is going to cost a hell of a lot more than just Opie, Anthony, and Jimmy's salaries. Without a platform like SiriusXM the boys are fucked.

if they re-up on their contract, they're fucking idiots.

Do ppl agree that based on the hints they were dropping this was going to be some kind of gathering of the juggalos type event?

Holy shit, that would be epic. Hopefully it will be held at Cave-in-Rock, IL.

They should just talk to slacker, Pandora, or I heart radio and get the fuck out, tired of their bullshit at sirius

iHeartRadio is ClearChannel. I doubt they have great relationsships there. :)

why do they need to go to another company and be another company's bitch? they can start their own network. bring over everyone from riotcast. the sky is the limit. people have such defeatist attitudes and some people don't even know what a podcast is, some people think a podcast means they would be limited to 1 day a week. dummies

here's the thing, the boys NEED to get fired for the show to get better, the only way is to do a podcast as there is no other medium left that would allow their show to flourish, but of course that is chump change to what they make now, so either they are forced to jump into it (and IMHO be quite successful after some time) or... we get this watered down show that we all like, but no one really loves anymore like in the old days, boys included IMHO, courtesy of management and times we live in.

Management wants O&A to pay for Howie's birthday bash like the WCW funded the first Wrestlemania.

I don't understand. Sirius wants the boys to pay for an event that they would do on Sirius/XM? That doesn't make sense.

And they asked O&A&J to come up with something!

why is everyone just comparing OA to Howard? Does anyone on here have ANY numbers detailing what Sirius makes off OA compared to Howard? I know Sirius is a SHIT company but none of you know how much money these guys bring in compared to Howard, so stop acting like they are equals.

All I have to say is WTF. This company actively tries to fuck them over. First demanding money because they thought Opie took too many days off, now this. IS IT IN THE CONTRACT?!?! No? Then go FUCK YOURSELF, Sirius and when the contract is up, PEACE! Why promote the show when they're going to happier doing their own thing next year?

Jimmy keeps saying to do a podcast. If that's a direction they go, how would it stay topical if it was done once or twice a week. I love turning on the show for whats going on and their take on it. Although shows can be listed to at anytime it just wouldn't be the same.

do it daily as-is, do outrageous stuff again, have 0 restrictions short of federal and state laws and CHARGE.. no one is charging for podcasts because it's hard to do, but it needs to happen. I've cancelled XM years ago due to its cost and shit content short of this show, which as we all know can be found elsewhere.. I would pay them $15/mo no problem (big spender here, lol)

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They can do a daily 4 hours if they wanted.

Why would they do it once a week? Lots of podcasts are daily.

People keep listing reasons why they can't do a podcast and every one of them is WRONG. A podcast DOESN'T MEAN IT HAS TO BE LIMITED TO 1 DAY A WEEK. And they can STREAM IT LIVE and have a mobile app for that. These aren't difficult things. I can build the app. With those 2 problems out of the way, what's the next problem you see? I can present a simple solution

Why doesn't stupid Jimmy do his own podcast and see what happens? I bet he doesn't even get Vos numbers.

Thes guys make many millions of dollars a year, just got a huge pay raise, yet they're always whining that Sirius won't gibmedat. Want to go to the Super Bowl? Pay for it. Want a larger studio? Pay for it. Want a big event? Pay for it.

The boys are stingy as fuck.

Interesting, would you have the same opinion if your boss said the same thing to you?

How much they make doesn't change the fact that they're employees being asked to pay for something for their employer.

They are contractors, not employees. Big difference in many ways.

They've said on-air that they have health/dental insurance through SiriusXM. I'm pretty sure they're employees on the Sirius payroll

I remember Ant talking on After O&A one day and Sam made reference to them being employees. Ant corrected Sam and said he's a contractor, not an employee. Sadly, I don't remember when it was, but it was within the last couple of months.

Well, to be fair, that stuff can be written into any contract.

Didn't Opie just say the other day his health insurance went up to $700 and he can afford it?

Well, I'm self-employed/contract employee myself. I don't see much difference in the principal.

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I think the point is that SXM won't even let them do that if they wanted to. The "Big Event" was not going to cost SXM anything. They just stand in the way to be dicks.

If they went to podcast then there would be no callers - no live show...that would suck.

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As does one Anthony Cumia. It's called "Live" from the Compound... the callers add a lot :-/

As opposed to the callers on the regular O&A show?

It is spelled Cuomo.

Nice edit, dick.

When can we expect the "Fuck management 11/15/13" upload?

they have no alternative... radio is dying. Podcasts are free.... they should shut up and cash their checks.

They want the 350k in exchange for all the promotion OnA are going to do for their own event on their SiriusXM radio show. So Sirius is saying if u are going to advertise ur own event on our platform, we want you to pay us for it.

I would pay $20 a month to listen to O&A daily if they wanted to do a webcast. They can even make their own app, maybe sell the TV rights too.

Fuck Jimmy. I bet he'd change his opinion if O&A decide to just retire.

I do computer stuff.