I think people forget what radio was like in the late 90s and early 2000s. His personality was perfect for the shock jock era. Also lets not forget how horribly douchey Ant was back then too. Yes, Opie sucks and we all hate him. Doesn't change the fact that he recognized talent in Anthony and was smart enough to bring Jimmy in and not try to be the funniest guy in the room (which was never possible anyway). I'm not going down the "ship steerer" road, but we wouldn't have gotten the glory years of O+A without the sloth.

A lot of the things that annoy most fans in 2015 worked in the late 90s. Forced repeating of original words and phrases until they caught on is irritating now because the bits they lead to are so shitty and/or corny, but the average self-described radio army "soldier" thought they were the bees knees in 2000. As good as Ant and Jimmy have always been, I'm not sure they would have gotten syndicated without the oqster and his industry tactics. Ant and Jim most likely never would have been obsessed with Stern, forcing him to mention their names once or twice, subsequently allowing A&J to replay the audio and proselytize to the fans that they're in a "full blown radio war! This guy fucking hates us!" which all us dummies believed and thought was somehow "fun". Again all of that is annoying and boring in retrospect but it did get O&A enough publicity and the resulting larger fanbase to get syndicated.

Plenty of other things he did that sucked but made new hardcore fans. A&J probably would have thrown the phones permanently in the garbage, but people do like hearing themselves on radio.

This is true. He was integral because it did happen with him there. We didn't have it any other way and he wasn't the problem at the time he was just there contributing whatever it was that he did. The fact that he's a simple bully is a piece of hindsight happiness that fuels this placr

What personality?

He is a dude bro. That worked when they started out. I'm not saying it wasn't awful, but that played in that era

He flashed them beautiful bosoms

He invented WOW so he could show off his udders

He over estimates his talents and Anthony underestimated his. That and the fact that Ant is very irresponsible, drunken pedophile who did not care about the business side, kept Opie there.

Guess he was smart enough to ride Anthony's coat tails to success & smart enough to not tweet racial tirades and get himself fired

He knew the business side early on. That kept him in.

Ant, Jimmy and all of Jimmy's comic friends who came in for 15 years and did 4 hour shows for free.

He was good at talking to management because he is management, or what management WOULD be if they thought they were "talent".

I forget who, but one of their ex employees (I think the one who bitched to that magazine?) said Opie's tantrums ALWAYS just happened to be "safe" and inside boundaries...as if they were calculated. Even his emotions are fake.

John Mainelli.

"I love your tantrums...constrained to the XM side and comfortably within company guidelines! You don't like to ruffle the feathers of your friends down the hall, and I commend you for your politeness."

Something like that, anyhow.

It was such a sardonic beat down that Opie thinks it's complimentary.

https://www.reddit.com/r/opieandanthony/comments/2yteqo/a_must_read_former_program_director_john/?

It's so true though. Opie is management in jock's clothing. He would love an excuse to grow a ponytail. Or the ability to.

Jim and Ant could have ditched him? You realize Opie had to convince Ant to bring Jim on as a full time guy, right?

The truth is that he "steered the ship" from a business perspective. As talentless as he is, he still had the belief that O&A deserved more money, more exposure etc. Ant would have rested with an easy gig and fallen apart really quick; look at how much he's shit the bed trying to do his own thing. Opie was the guy who took a lot of initiative for the show.

Totally on point!
To me Opie was always like the guy in the band who plays bass or drums or something and is serviceable but really not a great player, and doesn't do much to help write any of the songs. Maybe it's true, you could swap him out for any of a 1000 other guys and not notice anything on the album...
HOWEVER, when someone shows up from the record label, he would be the guy who had his shit together enough (or is simply sober enough) to say "yes, I can sign for that" or "hey sounds good, let me talk to the guys and let you know" and thus keep the entire thing from falling apart due to everyone being your typical "self-destructive/creative" type.

Because of Ant.

No gag reflex

He was the one who dealt with management...and he told us all how incompetent they were. He fooled them into thinking he mattered.

Opie was/is the hole.

Every ship needs a rudder.

Whassat?

Because his name came first in the brand. Because Anthony had no need to separate from him because it was going amazingly well and he was becoming rich.

If it's simple, breasted and unfunny but not broken but not broken then why fix it?

It's like everything you do with a team, especially in a competition. If somebody is shitty but you are having a great game with the rest of the team, eh, who cares? Opie was a shitty kicker on a team that won Super Bowls.

Tss tss probly cuz it wuz a fukkin BLOWjob

YEA SUCKIN PEKHAZ

Opie can renegotiate for years and years as long as SiriusXM thinks his name is worth the money he's asking. Opie's future employment is tired directly to Ant's success with TACS. If TACS fails, then Opie's half of the O&A brand doesn't carry the same weight. Management will hardball him on salary because they will know, like Ant, Opie won't be successful doing his own thing without them.

This is, of course, assuming TACS fails. I think it's interesting that Ant continuing on is actually helping keep tits in the business and neither one of them acknowledge it.

Gotta disagree with you sweety puss. I don't think TACS carries any weight with anyone at SXM. If it disappears or not it won't make any difference as to what fate befalls Opie's morning boo show.

Ant simply isn't a big ( in radio ) player anymore. Just watch his shows for confirmation of this.

Makes me sad but I'm watching a dying Sun these days.

Well, he wasn't exactly disposable. He contributed absolutely nothing to the conversations but he was the one to set up a lot of hilarious bits. IIRC he was the one to come up with High Stakes Tourettes which is as hacky an idea as the man himself but Ant and Patrice turned it into one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

[deleted]

The same way Tom DuBois got elected for another four years. Dummies just kept listening to the same old shit.

I didn't realize that Anthony and Jim made the call on who gets hired and fired.

Ant and Jim had a thing called loyalty.

Anthony talks about the early years where the radio station tried to sign Anthony without Opie to not pay for 2 people but Anthony refused. This is probably part of the reason Anthony takes pot shots since he didn't feel the same type of loyalty from Opie.

So although Opie was able to give Anthony his big break, Anthony also made sure Opie didn't get left behind.

Got audio of that?

Not at this time. I believe it was said during the O&A shows(with Opie in studio) when talking about their history(before they got to New York I believe, very early on) but didn't get into trying to be separated early on but I do believe Anthony has talked about it somewhat recently on his show with a little more info.

I think they talk about it on the Unmasked with Ron Bennington.

Opie and Anthony together >>>> them on their own.

Their chemistry was better than any other show ever.

It's so true though. Opie is management in jock's clothing. He would love an excuse to grow a ponytail. Or the ability to.