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WNEW Dumps Opie And Anthony
Radio Station Fires Shock Jocks After St. Patrick's Stunt
WNEW
Ex-WNEW jocks Opie (right) And Anthony (left)
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Aug 22, 2002 4:40 pm US/Eastern
(CBS)-(NEW YORK)-WNEW-FM has issued the following press release:
Based on recent events, The Opie and Anthony Show has been cancelled, and will be replaced by other programming beginning tomorrow.
Westwood One, Opie and Anthony's syndicator has also cancelled the program. The program aired on 18 stations across the country.
Also on Thursday, the top U.S. communications regulator ordered an investigation into complaints that the shock jocks allegedly broadcast a live, eyewitness account of a couple having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. This report lead to today's cancellation.
A Virginia couple was arrested Aug. 15 after allegedly having sex in a vestibule just a few feet from worshippers in the landmark Manhattan church. The encounter was described as it happened during the "Opie and Anthony" show, WNEW-FM radio's popular drive-time program that stations around the United States carry.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell directed the agency's enforcement bureau to begin an investigation immediately, spokesman David Fiske said.
If the FCC finds that a station violated federal indecency laws, the penalty is typically a fine ranging from $5,000 to $30,000, Fiske said. The amount can be higher depending on the case, he said.
The broadcast was part of a regular feature on the program where couples can win prizes for having sex in risky places. The couple's attorney has said they were just simulating sex.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has said he received hundreds of outraged phone calls and e-mails about the broadcast. He said the agency should consider revoking the station's license.
Opie and Anthony have attracted controversy in recent years.
Westchester County, N.Y., officials last year pulled an ad for a radio show from 40 county buses dominated by the word "WOW" after they learned that the acronym stood for "Whip 'em Out Wednesday" and is meant to urge women to bare their breasts. Westchester's views were not shared by the MTA or New Jersey Transit, as WNEW's "WOW" ads did appear on their stations, buses and trains.
In 1998, Opie and Anthony were fired from a Massachusetts station after announcing on April Fool's Day that Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino had died in a car crash in Florida.
WNEW-FM is a unit of Viacom Inc., as is WCBS. Infinity Broadcasting, also a unit of Viacom, manages Westwood One.
(© 2002 Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) |
