Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Opie and Anthony’s brand of offensive radio gumbo thrived in New York City, proving that mediocre taste amongst radio listeners wasn’t necessarily exclusive to the Boston market. Because of this success, and the previous gold that Infinity had mined by syndicating Howard Stern’s show into multiple markets, CBS pursued a similar deal for O & A’s afternoon show. Tony Berardini and Oedipus were now presented with a situation quite similar to the one that had occurred when Stern bumped Charles Laquidara off his longtime morning perch. If they didn’t pick up Opie and Anthony’s option in Boston, the offer would be made to someone else in the city. “And who was the station going to be?” Berardini posed. “WAAF; the station they started off with.” Of course, everyone in the loop was all too aware of what had happened when the ignoble tag team worked for that competitor three years earlier. Now faced with another catch-22 decision, Oedipus wrestled with his conscience and his duty. “It was awful,” he would say ten years SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND Something that went on that long and involved so many talented people is never going to truly go away. So, while ’bCn may be silent, the heart of it is still beating. It’s going to stay with people for a long time. hardy > 296 radio free boston later. “That was the beginning of the end. Radio had ceased to be what I liked, and what I envisioned it to be about in the first place.” Nevertheless, the program director added O & A’s show onto the ’BCN airwaves. Oedipus conceded that he did what he had to do to guard what was left at the station : “It was a collective decision, and I agreed to it as a way to protect my staff. The station was so revenue oriented by then that it was a matter of maintaining jobs.” Yes, the station was certainly revenue oriented: Boston magazine reported that WBCN’s take in 2000 was up to $38 million, only bested in the market by WBZ-AM. “Now, all of a sudden,” Berardini pointed out, “we had the two most important day parts on the radio station: morning and afternoon drive, as talk [shows] with Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony; yet we still wanted to be [known as] a music station!” “With two talk shows and the Patriots, our music image was smoke and mirrors,” Oedipus admitted. His second-in-command, Steve Strick, said, “I had to justify to the record labels why we were still relevant, and I had to do it every day. When you deemphasize the music, it has a huge effect; your clout with the labels disappears.” O & A’s arrival also disrupted the entire DJ lineup, bouncing Nik Carter to the midday slot, Bill Abbate to weekday overnights, and Albert O out of his full-time shift. Despite all that turmoil and the “talk versus music” fallout, O & A’s show did deliver substantial numbers, ranking number 1 among men eighteen to fifty-four in its first ratings period. But Opie and Anthony’s simulcast show from Manhattan thrived in the afternoon slot at WBCN for little more than a year. The witless duo crossed the line again in August 2002 by broadcasting a segment in which a couple attempted sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, mere feet from worshippers observing the Holy Feast of the Assumption, initiating a massive public outcry and outrage in the Catholic Church. When the religious hierarchy brought the full weight of its political clout to bear, not only Infinity, but also the entire CBS/Viacom parent, suddenly became vulnerable. The company quickly pulled O & A from the airwaves, an action that appeared to appease the church but not the FCC, which slapped Viacom with massive fines for indecent radio content. While dealing with these legal issues, the company, worried that the offending pair could be hired away to work for any competition if they were fired, paid O & A the balance of their estimated $30 million contract to sit at home for two years and watch shine on yoU CraZy diamond 297 TV reruns. To many hardworking employees of Infinity, CBS Radio, and Viacom, this was seen as the ultimate insult as Opie and Anthony laughed all the way to the bank. Oedipus went back to ’BCN’s basic playbook, returning music to the mix. Nik Carter returned to the afternoon...