Sex for Sam in Church leads to radio show being axed
In a brief, one-line statement, WNEW-FM said it was doing away with its top-rated, nationally syndicated duo.
“Based on recent events, The Opie and Anthony Show has been cancelled, and will be replaced by other programming,” the statement said.
A source said the station is working out money issues with the trashy talkers, who signed a three-year, $30 million deal in June 2001 with WNEW and its parent company, Infinity Broadcasting.
Their show was heard by 10 million people daily in 19 radio markets around the country.
The canning came the same day the Federal Communications Commission announced it was launching a formal investigation into the duo and WNEW for last week’s “Sex for Sam” contest that resulted in two of the show’s listeners being arrested for having sex in St Pat’s.
The listeners, Loretta Lynn Harper, 35, and Brian Florence, 37, were taken to the storied church by one of the show’s
employees, Paul Mercurio, who gave Gregg “Opie” Hughes, Anthony Cumia and their listeners a live blow-by-blow of the sacrilegious sex act.
“I am deeply disturbed about the reports of an incident involving WNEW-FM and a radio contest involving sex in public places, and I have directed the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to proceed immediately with a thorough investigation of the matter,” FCC chairman Michael Powell said in a statement.
The firing doesn’t necessarily get WNEW off the hook with the FCC.
The agency wants to know who signed off on the contest, and all the station’s records concerning the first two “Sex for Sam” contests, where entrants have sex in public places to win a trip to the Samuel Adams brewery.
“The agency would consider penalties up to and including the radio station’s broadcast license,” said FCC commissioner Michael Cop.
A transcript of the show shows the hosts knew what was going on.
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