90s Stern was the best radio ever, and all the guys admit they were fans and heavily influenced by him.

It's really hard to get Opie to admit that.

No its not he has said it many times. 90s stern is great but he stopped trying.

Kinda like how Early 00s O&A were great but they stopped trying? Like that?

I think that getting kicked off of CBS during their 2nd FM run really broke them. Particularly Opie.

Agreed.

The show ebbs and flows, but the general trend was starting okay on WNEW and got better and better until they got fired. Early XM was ok and they got even better than WNEW by the time they went to Free FM. Ever since than they've gotten worse with time. It's still a solid show, but I don't like the trend.

Whats that have to do with Opie and Anthony saying 90s stern was great? Does everything have to be an argument.

Your comment would have made sense 6 months ago, but now it's just a repetition of what others have already said. It's like you weren't even trying when you wrote that.

^ backhanded Opie "compliment"

What are you talking about?

That fool was just repeating this: Opie & Anthony: Howard Stern Has Given Up (08/08/13)

Trash HS for 10 years, then spin the message a new way by saying that he actually was always really good but now he sucks.

they were trying to make a living you numskull. it was the perfect business move. do you really think they didn't know how good howard was when they were going up against him? the fact that he set the bar so high probably helped o/a more than it hurt them.

I totally agree with you and you're kind of bolstering my point here, even if you don't understand that. My point here is that they were both heavily influenced by Howard and Opie has always had a hard time admitting that. His reasons are his own, but I feel like Ant has been a lot more honest about it and was kind of drug into a stupid radio wars thing.

Yeah, opie lost the radio war. He brought his best weapon, anthony and even though anthony put up a great fight, howard beat him. I would be hung up on it as well. Opie lost a chess game.

edit- the "radio war" was not stupid. it was the best thing for both parties and they all profited from it. Today opie might finally have the boots to howard and he cant pull the trigger because the principal favors the popular kid.

the "radio war" was not stupid. it was the best thing for both parties

Were you part of the O&A Army? Were you part of the Million Pest March? Did you have a fake title like General or Colonel?

Come on dude, the radio war is fucking stupid to any person that wasn't involved. I'll concede that at the time, maybe it made sense.

But what a lot of you don't realize is that O&A were paid the most, and getting the best ratings, prior to the radio war - at WNEW, where they weren't even allowed to talk about Stern. Opie ranting about Stern and management on XM and CBS at the start of their shows was a colossal dud. Seriously, that had to be a huge turn off for any new listener. It even turns off regular listeners today - imagine if you were just casually tuning in back then and had to listen to Opie do a 15 minute rant about Howard Stern.

no dude, i was a little kid hearing really interesting shit going on every day on radio. the radio war was awesome, and i remember it fondly. its probably nostalgia but i would love nothing more than for count howard to rise from his casket and just rip into O&A tomorrow, just so i could be entertained.

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Wow, you really suck cocks.

Ant once said that Stern was his biggest influence, and a big influence on both of them, and Opie only reluctantly admitted that he was an influence, but not the biggest. He totally wanted to downplay that Stern was an influence, so people that are downvoting your comment are wrong. If you asked Opie who his biggest influence in radio was he'd probably say Brother Wease, but that mean-spirited humor and venomous anger that are staples of O&A are straight out of the Howard Stern show. The Brother Wease show bears little resemblance to O&A.

Howard was great in the 90s, definitely. But to your point of him being quicker than Norton, Stern had/has 3+ writers feeding him lines at all times. Norton is making everything up on the fly. Bit of a difference.

So here's Howard in a 10 minute clip - basically longer than anything Norton has ever carried by himself. Zero writers are feeding him lines during this. Also, as much as I love him, Norton is less than 1/3 of a show. Between Ope, Ant, clips, and callers, Jim doesn't really speak for that long relative to Howard.

This is a decent clip but it's not really helping your cause much. This clip didn't really define 90s Howard and the boys can deliver this type of humor no problem. Also it's not easy to maintain the chemistry O&A+J do. Regarding your original post, Howard had to drive the show be the funny comedian and take all the attention in order to satisfy his own issues. The boys share the attention and play to strengths. It's a different vibe completely.

howard is like a less annoying fez when it comes to being the center of attention all the time.

I didn't put myself out there as a Howard Stern expert - I said that I've been listening to his old shows these past few weeks. If I didn't manage to condense 20+ years of radio into some great Youtube clips after a week of casual listening then boohoo, sorry. Maybe you can help

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And then compare that mediocre, mean-girl humor to Jimmy going of on Dragon Wagon.

I'm not a Howard hater, but most of the jokes he came up with were from Jackie the Joke man passing him notes. Like how Sam passes notes to Bobo.

And the hour long segments of ripping on Jackie and hilariously deconstructing all of his deep character flaws were written by. . .

Billy West... Fred...

billy didn't write lines like that, he sat in the far corner of the room and made voices. Fred doesn't really write like that either. The only thing written for howard are off the cuff little one liners and they are usually pretty easily identifiable if you are a regular listener and constitute a very small percentage of what comes out of his mouth. I've heard him berating benjy when he is mad at him saying how sometimes he only writes 4-5 jokes a show.

I think Jackie said on O&A that he wrote a lot of those, too.

Yeah, and Bob Levy and Pat Cooper were integral parts of Howard's show as well.

jesus christ...

I honestly don't know, just throwin it out there. You didn't have to take the name of our one true lord and saviour in vain, though.

I'm not a hater. I'm not arguing with you.

Oh, you definitely have a point when using that to refute the "quicker than norton" thing. Whenever stern pauses his thought process and rattles off a silly line it seems it's most always a jackie/now benjy line.

If you pay attention to the O&A show you'll notice that they have multiple sources feeding them lines as well. Ant uses Paltalk, Opie uses instant feedback and reads what the callers are going to say without going to them. There have also been occasions when it's revealed that someone was trying to get them to say a line on the air and ended up saying it themselves, like some famous Danny bombs, which leads me to believe that when they are fed a good line they would work it seamlessly into the show the way Stern does.

It's pretty obvious when Stern is ranting off the top of his head vs reading a line, and you can't do 5 hours of radio written by someone else. Listen/watch any interview in which Howard is the one being interviewed and you can see that he is quick-witted, quite skilled at articulating his point, and has a straight-forward opinion on everything, which is crucial to good radio. Ant and Jimmy both share these qualities.

Now go watch an Opie interview, and also note how he ducks any invitation to be on Red Eye or any situation in which he doesn't have other people to carry him and bail him out when he has nothing to say.

One of the best posts in this sub EVER.

when does opie ever give his opinion on politics? there would be no point for him to be on red eye.

redeye is mostly pop culture, and what little politics are discussed are mostly surface level jokes.

I don't see how that could be true. He's so quick that I actually looked into whether or not his show was pre-recorded.

The 90's was the last great period for terrestrial radio, I'd listen to Stern in the mornings, O&A in the afternoon. Shame they couldn't work out a deal and Stern being a spotlight hog.

i've just never understood the debate. howard's show is howard with great, guided interviews but a severe lack of casual nature. o&a's show is guys shooting the shit with an obvious weak point in interviews (unless it's comics or guests who are/become extremely comfortable with the show.) i don't think it's a "better or worse" comparison, it's all according to taste. and i've always preferred the o&a format over the stern one.

Ant's master class in radio was listening to stern religiously for years. I think he still loves him to this day but just keeps quiet when Opie goes on his cringy anti howard tirades. When Ant makes fun of Howard it's coming from a place of love. When Opie does it, it's coming from a place of resentfulness and jealousy.

Yeah Anthony definitely respects him even when he mocks him it's playful. Opie is the one who takes the angry shots and has the legitimate beef

I have noticed this. Even when Ant's mocked him, he can't help but turn around and compliment the guy. I believe Jimmy said he used to listen to him as well.

Anthony was on Howard Stern in '94.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwAEXxN35U8

Ant might have respect for him, but it's far from love. Ant was right there with Opie, bashing HooHoo when HS vs O&A was in full effect.

Why do people always say this. Has no one ever listened to ants rants about Howard in the xm days. HS kept ant out of work for 2 years. He fucking hates stern

Not denying that at that time they all hated him, but I don't hear that at all in Ant's tone anymore when referring to howard. There was a recent no opie show before the birthday show where jim and ant were briefly discussing it and both said like "ahh well, good for him." That doesnt sound like hate to me. At this point in Ant's life you really thinks he gives a shit?

Yea I do. If you listened to the years of hatred instead of 1 moment at a company that tells them to not talk about him you would understand. Anthony hates everything but you think this is what he gets over?

Please explain how Howard Stern kept them out of work for 2 years.

Are you saying he forced them to do the Sex for Sam bit that got them fired, or that he forced them to sign the contract with WNEW that contained a no compete clause?

Seriously, explain how he had anything to do with keeping them out of work. Or is everything that goes wrong for O&A just inherently the fault of Howard Stern?

Where can you hear Howard's older stuff

This guy has a lot of shows. '97 was a good year

http://classicstern.dynu.com/stern/

I heard an old clip of O&A on Youtube a while back doing the exact bit that's in Howard Stern's movie "Private Parts", where he had a woman straddle a bass speaker and he gives her an orgasm over the radio. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Mind PM me the link. I've listened to 1/2 an hour of stern ever and felt it was listenable.

They had a great pace and energy back then. Those days are long gone though.

I agree with ya. I'm 28 now. Back when I was a sweet young boy in the mid-late 90s whenever my dad wasn't at work and was around to take my brothers and me to school those were the only days that we would be awake and out the door early because we would sit in the school parking lot in my old man's car and listen to Stern until we HAD TO go into the building. As I got older the local radio station stopped carrying his show but there was still the E! channel show to tune in to. The guy did a lot of amazing radio. There's no denying that. I never got interested in being involved in the "Stern vs. O&A" shit cause I enjoy them both. I don't listen to Stern really anymore but I still will check out his older shit on YouTube and if I hear he is interviewing somebody I like I'll check that out too.

You were kind of the person I had in mind. I'm 26. I found out about O&A in like '07 when they trashed Tucker Max, then came across them again with their Jesse Ventura interviews, went all in with the show in the last year or year and a half. So I'm not coming at this from the perspective of a Radio Wars douche, but rather as someone who missed out on that era.

Same here. I started listening to O&A regularly about 2 years ago. I've done a lot of YouTube searches though to catch up on a lot of the good stuff from the years I missed. There's plenty of good radio that O&A and Howard have done so I listen to it all. O&A is the only show that I follow daily (give or take a few days here and there) now though.

O&A is the only show that I follow daily (give or take a few days here and there) now though.

Same here. But that's also the reason these old shows are so great.

I'll tell ya what. If you haven't already discovered Beetlejuice you gotta check out some Stern when he has that guy on his show. If you can find clips with video included it's a real treat.

I liked the hell out of Howie and Gang - to me it started to turn around the Private Parts era, and in the years before I gave up Artie and Richard Christy kept things going for me while boss man seemed to start mailing it in.

Ant has admitted on the air that without Howard Stern there would be no Opie and Anthony. Those Stern shows from the 90's are great. I think the addition of Artie Lange to replace Jackie in the early 2000's was also a welcome improvement as well, and guys like Richard Christy brought a lot to the table, but I think the show really suffered once Artie's addiction took over and he left the show, and it has never recovered. The stern show in the 90's is still legendary radio though, and was totally groundbreaking at the time.

Everyone loved Howard back then, this isn't shocking news. I'm willing to bet half of this sub is fairly new (a yr or two) O&A fans who just couldn't take the current Howard anymore.

Go listen to one of his new shows and see all the differences. He's even gone so far as to edit out words like fag and nigger from his older shows because he's such a whiny PC cunt these days.

90's Howard was monster radio, its post satellite radio Howard who sucks. Thats what you get when you don't hold on to your talent.

From the 90s. From the^90s.

Any example shows...never a fan of HS, especially with robin.

Look for stuff with Billy West or bits where they rip apart Jackie the Jokeman.

The Artie years were my favorite. I can't stand early 90s Stern with all those bits. I get why Billy West was talented, but was never too into him.

The Artie years were my favorite. I can't stand early 90s Stern with all those bits. I get why Billy West was talented, but was never too into him.

Here is a suggestion from someone who grew up listening to Stern: no one gives a fuck what you think, you stupid fucking jabroni.

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I'll really give it to Stern for the most part. The boys are lined up about like they're being told here. Ant has no professional radio experience beyond sitting in on shows and meticulously listening to Stern and Opie before joining up with Op. While Ant certainly sees Howard less favorably then he did in the past, I don't think that he has the kind of disdain towards HooHoo that Opie does. With Opie doing a lot more executive guff, I think he's grown to hate the amount of gerrymandering and engineering within SXM that Howard can do and does. Overall, I like a lot of classic Stern, but Howard isn't in the same kind of position for me today because of how little he's attempted to change with the genre, instead hoping it changes with him. O&A aren't the best they've ever been, but they're the most experienced that they've been. I've listened to them for a few years now and I just prefer them today over Howard today.

The boys weren't too bad in the late 90's either

Cool story. Maybe you should post this in the Howie sub.

no cunt would argue that Stern in the 90's and early 20's was great,the kike has been living off that success for the past 10 years.The last 5 years isn't any better than Todd and Scott.

as soon as Robin quits or dies that will be the end of it,the rancid old money lender will retire from radio.

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I'm not a hater. I'm not arguing with you.

Billy West... Fred...

I think Jackie said on O&A that he wrote a lot of those, too.

Your comment would have made sense 6 months ago, but now it's just a repetition of what others have already said. It's like you weren't even trying when you wrote that.

^ backhanded Opie "compliment"

they were trying to make a living you numskull. it was the perfect business move. do you really think they didn't know how good howard was when they were going up against him? the fact that he set the bar so high probably helped o/a more than it hurt them.

Kinda like how Early 00s O&A were great but they stopped trying? Like that?