They coulda been models!

For the "perfect face for radio" campaign by Dove

If anything they would have been less famous. It was sex for sam that brought them to national attention and eventually to the steps of XM radio where there show went national. Without Sex for Sam, they would still have been big back east but us west coasters probably would have never heard of them. Stern and Mark and Brian were the big dogs at the time out here I think.

SFS gained them national attention, if they were not fired they might have extended their syndication (the question wasn't if it never happened but if they did not get fired for it)

Definitly if they rode the controversy right they could have had a chance to be as big as Stern sydication wise.

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Yeah I agree. I first heard O&A on a rock station in Seattle that they were syndicated on in 2000. The first time I ever heard Howard Stern was on KROQ in Los Angeles. He was on there very briefly in the 80s.

That was their challenger explosion. Yes they still went higher but not nearly what they would have had.

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"Endeavor" was an answer on Cash Cab yesterday. It was back in my head all day.

spayceshuddle endeavwoorrrrrrr

definitely. they were fuckin huge in ny during anew days.

For sure.

I started listening to them on WNEW because everyone was talking about them in NYC. Wow stickers were on every cab, and they were shock-jocky enough to take attention away from Stern.

Its hard to say if that type of radio would have sustained long term success, but I'm sure the eventual jump to XM would have been publicized a lot more.

By the time O&A got to K-Rock, New York's home of douchey millennium rap-rock, most people were just like "oh yeah those guys"

The decline is mostly due to demographics. In 1997, baby boomers were about 46 years old. Due to this, Opie and Anthony had this huge pool of potential listeners, because their comedy skews towards a younger audience. I'd say about 20-50 years old. By the time that Sex for Sam hit, the boomers were hitting 50, so you have a big chunk of the audience that was simply getting too old for this type of humor.

Now that it's 2014, Baby Boomers are about 63, and they're not listening to Opie and Anthony. They're listening to Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk radio, etc.

This has affected all of radio, but it's been particularly brutal for any show that courts a young audience.

BTW, this is also the reason that comedians like Russell Peters are HYOOOGE overseas. The average age of people in other countries is much lower, because the birthrate is higher in other countries. If you pull statistics for other countries you'll see this; the average age of people in countries like Mexico and India is 30-something and in the United States it's late 40s.

TLDR: Young people like comedy more than old people. Due to this, comedians can find success by going where the audience is young. In the 80s and 90s that was the United States, in 2014 that audience is in other countries.

Old people who liked comedy when they were young generally like the same comedy when they're older.

You don't just stop liking stuff when you change demos

I don't get how it didn't make them bigger.

they're is they are - their is the correct word --- they're there with their car

...

they would be on par with howard. it was a crazy bit that got them national attention. the contract that would have disallowed them from talking about it really sucked for their careers.

I love how people completely ignore 2006 and inheriting the Stern Empire...then losing every market.

They did not directly inherit the Stern Empire. There was a few month gap called the David Lee Roth Shit Show that caused A LOT (deserves capitals) of people to check out of 92.3. Could they have come back, sure, but you can't act like OnA took over the day after and lost everyone.

Look at the numbers morning drive had at 92.3 before OnA took over, they were less than a quarter of Stern audience. I don't know what would have happened if they did come in directly after but I think they would have done just fine.

It's very easy to lose listeners but hard to get them back and the few Months of DLR really hurt the numbers for K Rock and OnA.

Yeah cause shitty David Lee Roth didn't go Fuck it up first

They'll always be howard clones

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Hoo hoo I invented radio

SFS gained them national attention, if they were not fired they might have extended their syndication (the question wasn't if it never happened but if they did not get fired for it)

Yeah I agree. I first heard O&A on a rock station in Seattle that they were syndicated on in 2000. The first time I ever heard Howard Stern was on KROQ in Los Angeles. He was on there very briefly in the 80s.