Opie was always the behind the scenes guy. At the beginning of the O&A show this was very important. WNEW, early XM days, etc. he was pushing the outrageous bits and everything to get the brand Opie & Anthony out there.

Anthony was genuinely funny/talented, but Opie was the one going "Put this wiffle-ball bat in your asshole!" People weren't calling up their friends saying, "OH MY GOD, turn to WNEW! This guy is doing this hilarious Reagan impression!" Opie actually created content back in those days (even if it was frat-guy-douchery) that got people tuning in and spreading the word

From what I understand, he was doing a lot more of the business stuff back then too.

As the show progressed, they couldn't do the outrageous bits anymore due to lawyers and whatnot. Comics started coming in and hanging for hours at a time. Opie was less and less necessary to the show. Also, becoming a husband and father pushed him further from the others...He began coasting too, playing CandyCrush and doing Sodoku's while Jimmy and Ant (and all those comics) created hours of radio.

So he has nothing to contribute to the show, now. He is still maintaining this persona "Opie the Badass Shock Jock" or "Opie from Opie and Anthony" when he is just some dude with a minimal intelligence, terrible social skills, and no sense of humor. He should drop the charade and be himself. Normal douchebag with a wife and kids. At least we could respect him for the honesty.

After losing FM simulcast, the days of shock jockery were passe. It was Ant, Jimmy and a bunch of stand ups throwing the ball around and Opie was both unneeded and a detriment to that dynamic. Opie just seemed so dated and out of his element. The show was LED lighting and Opie was a lava lamp.

In music, it's the people who PRODUCE the hits who are frequently rich and powerful. For instance, Dr Dre isn't the best rapper or the best musician, but he has an incredible ear for talent.

Nearly every one that Dre worked with was better at their jobs. Snoop Dogg was a better rapper than Dre, but Dre's ability to FIND talent like Snoop Dogg is what made Dre rich.

And he's INCREDIBLY rich; his deal for "Beats" made Dre a billionaire and possibly the most financially successful musician of all time.

TLDR: sometimes the easiest way to get successful is to find talented people.

Agree. You can say the same about Howard Stern. Howard knew to surround himself with people better than himself, on the radio & in business.

Huh? Howard's biggest weakness is that he always surrounded himself with shit. Artie was the sole exception, but Howard was already exiting his prime by the time Artie came around.

Except when you listen to Dr. Dre rap, you might not think he's the best, but you gotta acknowledge he's got some skill for it. You might think guys he scouted and partnered with are better, like Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Eminem, but you still have to realize Dre is a good rapper. What the fuck does Opie do?

I guess he handled the business side and brought Ant in and Jim in the business, but the show was on for 20 years. By 2008, listening to the show was like watching 15 year olds still using training wheels.

he kept his aim on the streets, signed eminem

Ear to the streets...

Dre found the talent but also came up with the beats. Tupac kinda sucked before Dre backed him with his beats.

Agreed.

I think it was on Yimmy's episode of unmasked where he brought up Keith Robinson's idea of how the business is made of front of the bus and back of the bus guys. Comedians were the people in the back of the bus talking shit and the business people are the humorless cunts who sat at the front. Then there are the middle of the bus people who end up as go betweens - the people that aren't funny enough to be comedians, or conniving/savvy enough to be executives. That's what Opie is. Too dumb to be a threat to management and bland enough to be the straight-man for genuinely funny people.

His "talent" and success are both mutually exclusive.

It's hard to make comparisons with other fields because this is a unique entity but I remember when down the hall wanted them in afternoons and Ant said they didn't value his opinion/respect him because he wasn't a traditional radio guy so maybe it's a situation of he was the bridge between management and talent and even though he always took button pusher as an insult it made him millions so button pusher was also what he brought to the table.