Since Howard Stern debuted on Sirius Satellite Radio, the debate has raged on and on about the state of “morning radio”. Arguments like, “who’s better – Opie & Anthony or Howard Stern” or “Commercial Radio vs. Satellite Radio” have become the raging debate amongst the millions of fans who now have to make decisions about their morning radio listening after over 20 years of the stability of Stern in their market. After giving it a month to heat up, sink in and find a comfort zone, it’s now time to look at the key players and what they are doing.
Howard Stern (Sirius)– No one at all denied that Howard Stern didn’t define what morning radio has become over the last two decades. His last year on commercial served as a 12 month commercial for Sirius. He had plenty of time to come up with great ways to launch the “Satellite Radio Revolution,” as Sirius and he call it. But sadly, he has failed in large part to bring anything innovative and new to the table.
While his hardcore fans will certainly say that the new, raucous show is better than “anything” on radio, anyone that has had an XM radio over the last 16 months realizes that Opie and Anthony have already conquered much of Stern’s “new” territory already.
Further, the creative spark that once separated The Stern Show from the rest of the pack has now seemingly left. Playing the Pat O’Brien sex tapes 8 months after they first debuted on Satellite and proclaiming them as new may fly for innovative to the uninformed, but fans of satellite radio were well aware of their first run on the other platform.
Additionally, the idea of recreating old terrestrial radio bits peppered with profanity just shows how void this show has become of cutting edge material. Sure, bits like his attack on Rachel Hunter were funny, and the Jenna Jameson sex ride was interesting, but ultimately Sirius’ Howard Stern Show is a far cry from the classic 1994-1996 era when he was an untouchable.
Opie And Anthony (XM) – For Opie and Anthony, the infamous “Sex For Sam” episode that got them fired and blackballed from commercial radio may have been the best thing ever to happen to them. Where their afternoon show on Infinity stations was full of shocking bits of humor such as Sex For Sam, the 55 Gallon Drum Challenge, the Wiffle Ball Bat Challenge, etc., the show now has become a lot more topical than ever before.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Paul
How is it again that O&A are "blazing the way" for morning radio?
Isn't it Howard who brings more and more NEW shows/content to his two channels on Sirius with each passing day?
Howard puts his parents on for an hour to do their own show and take calls, they are putting together a show for the wives of the cast members to do the same, there is an entire news department with two hours of live Howard related news daily, a weekly fan round table show, a daily one hour show recap with behind the scenes details, Tissue Time, Bubba The Love Sponge, today is Valentine's Day and there was a special 1 hour live show for guys to complain about women..... the list goes on and on.. Sirius subscribers are getting much more bang for their buck (13 bucks).
How is it that O & A are pioneering anything? Any bit that they do was done by Howard 15 years ago. Howard's show is about much more than bits, but you would have to listen to it to get that. Your Stern talking points sound exactly like the ones spewed on a daily basis by O&A.
2 - Master Po
O&A Party Rock!
To clarify for the guy in the first comment, this article seems to be about the morning shows, not the entire platform of radio. And really - staff member shows, ma and pa stern? Who cares? It's lame, just like Stern and the little doggie company!
3 - hans
I purchased an xm unit one year ago and after hearing the hype about stern I bought sirius.My xm unit is sitting in the back seat of my car gathering dust!!
4 - John
Anything O&A do, is a spin of something Stern did years before. Everyone ranks on Stern, yet he opened the door for everyone. It appears his show is doing much better than this blog.
5 - matt
Chris--you must be listening to Howard every day to be able to make the informed opinion that nothing is new.
Opie and Anthony are derivative garbage. And they know that Stern is their daddy. So much so that those 2 assholes sent a whole crew down to Howard's last show on WXRK to picket it. These guys have become completely irrelevant. Their move to XM was a fart compared to Howard.
6 - Spunko
This is a joke, right?
Howard rules, why listen to a cheap copy when you can have the real thing?
7 - matt
holy shit. I just went back over this, and you called Opie and Anthony "pioneers". Please reclassify this as satire. Thanks
8 - Sean
I don't have xm or sirius so I cannot comment ont he current state of Stern or O & A. I always found Stern funny and O & A lame, but that is me.
You are so right about David Lee Roth. His show is painful to listen to.
9 - DC
Nice, Stern trolls post this link at their watering hole and come here to try to do a grassroots PR blitz. Sorry guys - the cat's out of the bag - Stern's boring nowadays. No buzz anymore.
Still funny at times - but O&A are the real deal. Do any of you guys have any argument other than "love me daddy"? When did Stern do the radio O&A did? "I've done it all! Everyone rips me off. I'm retiring in 5 years. I hate radio." It's curious to me - I don't recall.
If your master is so awesome, why doesn't the tiger's claws come out to destroy them? You know why? Because he's done. He can't fight the battle anymore. O&A would destroy him in a fight... and I wish it wasn't like that. The Stern of old was a monster - he's just not hungry anymore.
10 - RJ Elliott
I recently saw a video of a Howard Stern show where he and Artie Lange were attempting to toss cold meatballs in between the labia of two nude slut guests.
Is that really Howard's idea of entertainment? I mean, the thought of doing it is somewhat amusing, in a way...but actually watching them do it was, in a word, disturbing.
11 - jack london
Its sad to see how far Stern has fallen from his prime. He should have thrown in the towel years ago. Now hes just a bitter greedy old woman. His show is a borefest.
Opie and anthony are a much better show. Anthonys's impressions are dead on. Howards impressions suck. Opie is more evil than Howard could ever dream of becoming. O&A have comedians on and actually let them talk.
Stern ia a washed up hack. He started this shit but like Brett Favre he should have retired years ago. O&A are the new kings of shock jock radio.
The howard fans are realizing that more and more as stern ages on to his inevitable death.
12 - John
I guarantee you O&A are not around in 20 years. Niether will XM. Howard will be more intelligent and funny at 80 than O&A at thier prime. O&A spend alot of money to post all over Stern sites and heckle the guy. Stern doesn't even talk about those irrelevent saps.
13 - Adam
I got XM about a year and a half ago because I enjoyed O&A's commercial radio show, but their satellite one is even better. It's edgy, daring, and despite what Stern fans might say, very original. Even in recent months with Jim Norton away, I feel that the show has been able to maintain its energy and in some ways, has been even funnier and more entertaining.
Although I honestly can't comment on Stern's new show since I don't have Sirius, I'm frankly tired of his fans spewing the same old lines about how everyone rips him off. True, Howie was an innovator of "shock" radio 20 years ago, and his success helped pave the way for a more honest and cutting edge form of radio. But that's like Michael Jordan taking credit for Kobe Bryant's success.
Opie and Anthony are very talented, and they put on an immensely entertaining show. It's not for everyone, nor is Howard's, but fans of the show truly know how addicting and unpredictable it often is. No doubt that Howard is the bigger name, but when it comes down to it, O&A have been on satellite longer than Howard and they have been a big success for XM.
As for David Lee Roth, he really sucks. Mosey bosey bop, diddy bop!
14 - Damn Greg
My first blog read.Wow!Now this is a waste of time.What a bunch of assholes.I'm embarresed for all of you.Especially Opie & Anthony.
15 - tussel
Listend to Stern throughout my childhood.
Now its all about O&A on XM202. F rerecoding old bits and sucking Howeys mule. The tank is empty and Sirius hardware is a joke compared. CHURN BABY CHURN
16 - popprozac
This is just awful, Opie and Anthony are a waste but I will say that I heard a show of theirs from a friend and now I bought an Xm Delphi MyFi and now I have the Virus. I'm hooked on Opie and Anthony on XM 202. GREAT SHOW.
GGRRRRrrrr
17 - Xyn
To "Pioneer," one must go to a new place, making way for those who fallow. Opie and Anthony were clearly on sattelite long befor Howard Stern, and one doesn't have to look too deeply to see how they have paved the way for those, like Howard, to fallow.
Hell, take the Pat Obrien Sex tapes. Relevant Howie plays them months after no one cares about them anymore, and he even plays remixes of the tapes that were in fact made by fans of the O&A show.
Howard Stern has been doing Sub Par radio for ten years. Don't believe me? He said so himself. His explanation for it was of course the persecution from groups like the FCC, and yet now that he is on Sattelite, the show has not changed much.
Sure he curses, but who gives a fuck? Sure he can talk about adult subjects more openly, but that doesn't matter if you don't used the freedom to say somthing interesting.
But not to worry. Sirius Sattelite Radio fucked up, and set up their system where they can't allow fully uncensored content to be broadcast. Opie and Anthony on the other hand, have absolutely no restrictions to what they can say (beyond the obvious, like not saying anything that would get you sent to jail), thanks to the brilliance of the minds at XM sattelite radio, the original and best Sattelite Radio Provider, now, and likely for a long time, certainly for the next five years.
So worry not Howard, with some restrictions back in place, you can once again complain that you are being held back. You once again have an excuse to do 5 more years of "Sub par radio." Have fun with that, while Opie and Anthony talk to their 6 million subscribers, putting out fresh and entertaining shows FIVE (count them, 1 2 3 4 5) days a week.
Have fun in oscurity at the little doggy company, fucko
18 - Ned Nitpicker
By the way, it is Gregg "Opie" Hughes, with two 'g's, to prevent people from using "Gregory" as an alternative.
19 - GLENN_THE_TOOL
"How is it that O & A are pioneering anything? Any bit that they do was done by Howard 15 years ago."
really? name one. go ahead, do it.
you can't, can you? didn't Howard play a Stephen Lynch song that was taken DIRECTLY FROM O&A's show? you could hear O&A laughing in the background and their "Inappropriate Bell" ringing during the song. didn't Howard also play a song that was made solely for O&A's Most Offensive Song contest? i've already named more things Howard has stolen from O&A than O&A have stolen from Stern. you only said that O&A just do all of Howard's old material because that's what Howard said about them and you just write them off solely on what Howard says. do your research and think for yourself, you zombie. don't believe everything out of Howard's mouth, since i've heard plenty of his lies to know better than to take him for his word.
"Howard's show is about much more than bits, but you would have to listen to it to get that."
you're right, he spends the rest of his time stroking his own ego, asking strippers the same old questions for the last 20 years, and claiming to be a "champion of free speech" while hiding the fact that he gagged O&A from even so much as mentioning his name. last i checked, that wasn't freedom of speech, that's FASCISM. maybe he should have read the First Amendment a little closer.
"Your Stern talking points sound exactly like the ones spewed on a daily basis by O&A."
and you're assumption that O&A do nothing but rip off Howard sounds exactly like everything Howard always says about O&A. see my earlier suggestion.
20 - Sternly Disappointed
If Stern is considered the pioneer to terrestrial radio then O&A are the pioneers of satellite radio. They have been doing it longer and have come up with newer funnier stuff. While Howard did 14 months of advertising about his "revolution", it is sad that just 1 year earlier he was claiming that satellite radio was for washed up has beens and those that couldn't find work in "real" radio.
You would think that being excited for over a year and not being able to sleep due to all the ideas you were having when you made your glorious move, you could have done more than rerecord old bits/song parodies and have your staff interview each other daily about how great you are and how the world of radio would stop without you.
You also seem to lacking major guests but then that was expected since your audience has shrunk massively and you no longer have the pull you used to.
21 - Siriusly Stoked
How funny is it to see the o&a reactives do their best to disparage Howard and Sirius.
Almost as funny as the piles of XM units that are still taking up space at Best Buy and Circuit City.
Hint: o&a have a radio show - Stern is programming two stations. Big diff.
Won't be too long before o&a are once again working for Karmazin - and Stern.
'Nuff said.
22 - Jake
I'm not familiar with radio personalities too much to comment, but I have had both XM sattelite radio & Sirius sattelite portable units, and the XM Myfi was a lot better...great reception & much cooler features. the Sirius unit looks like they spent too much time trying to make it look cool, and not enough money spent making it a quality unit.
Sold the sirius on ebay and i kept the myfi...can't wait for XM's new poratble unit to come out in next month! It's supposed to hold 50 hours of MP3s, recorded sat. radio audio, etc. and its smaller than the XM myfi & the sirius unit. XM Sattelite Radio is definitely light years ahead when it comes to technology.
23 - Sirius
I'll brake the ice. David Lee Roth ROCKS!! LOL
BTW Sirius subscriber enjoy your rate increase, they gotta get some more cash coming in to pay Hoo Hoo. What are you guys going to do when Hoo Hoo does 4 days a week and 9 month a year??
24 - js
Stern's new show is OK, but the Howard 100 News filler got old fast! They should just repeat the show on one channel. I prefer O&A to Stern, but Maxim Radio on Sirius 108 is my favorite.
For over-the-air radio, no one has mentioned The Adam Carolla Show. It's the best of the 3 Stern replacements.
25 - Furio
Stern is a hack ...O&A are much better. Opie reminds me of a younger and meaner Imus