Boston Press on ONA (8/4/06)

[SOS]

Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2006/08/04/shock_jock_radio_hits_the_road/)

Shock-jock radio hits the road

By Nick A. Zaino III, Globe Correspondent | August 4, 2006
How do you take a monument to bad taste like the Opie & Anthony radio show and turn it into a touring comedy festival?

That was the question put to artist rep and tour coordinator Peter Pappalardo when the morning show jocks, who are carried by both XM Satellite Radio and terrestrial stations like WBCN, proposed their Traveling Virus tour. The tour kicks off tomorrow at the DCU center in Worcester with Jim Norton , Bob Saget , Ralphie May , Bill Burr , Patrice O'Neal , Robert Kelly , Rich Vos , and Tracy Morgan .
Pappalardo took Opie & Anthony's original vision of a packaged comedy tour with some theatrical elements and turned it into a moving festival more comparable to Lollapalooza or Ozzfest than a typical stand-up event. While Pappalardo tried to use as many ideas as the guys and the local promoters came up with, not everything made the final cut. ``We're trying to sell the concept of an anything goes type of atmosphere," he says, ``but there are obviously local laws."
Pappalardo promises the tour will be true to the mix of rock-star attitude and often crude humor that has made the show so popular. In addition to the main comedy event, there'll be something called the ``Village," which features exhibits and attractions like a Clinic where women in nurses' uniforms dole out back rubs and booths designed by die-hard O&A fans, known as ``Pests." There will also be a Petting Zoo for the show's regular sidekicks like Twitchels and Stalker Patty. ``You can actually feed them candy corn and take your pictures with them," Pappalardo says.
``It's a good day out for people that don't have jobs," says Vos, a regular on the radio show, as he busts on the show's fan base. ``You can always tell an O&A fan because they have no muscle tone."
The stage where the comics perform will be a go-go bar, complete with poles for dancers. ``I don't think we're trying to be in-your-face offensive; I think we're trying to mimic the radio show and bring what people get to listen to on a daily basis, including the comics," says Pappalardo.
Some of the exhibitions were news to Vos. When told Opie & Anthony are planning a petting zoo, he asked, ``Are they really? I hope I don't get a letter, `Hey, you're in the petting zoo.' "
Vos counts Norton, O'Neal, and some of the other O&A regulars among his best friends, but it's the comic firepower of the whole line up that impresses him the most. ``I feel sorry for the guy who's gotta go last," he says. ``But it'll be a lot of fun."
Opie & Anthony’s Traveling Virus plays Worcester’s DCU Center tomorrow at 7 p.m. Call 617-931-2000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com (http://www.ticketmaster.com/).



Boston Herald (http://theedge.bostonherald.com/artsNews/view.bg?articleid=151307)

This Virus you’ll want to catch
By Sean L. McCarthy/ Jokers Wild
Boston Herald Feature Writer
Friday, August 4, 2006

It’s a homecoming for Opie and Anthony.

Back on the radio, now back in Boston and Worcester, they’re broadcasting live this morning (6 to 9) from WBCN-FM (104.1) studios, meeting with fans, then taking their Traveling Virus comedy show to Worcester’s DCU Center tomorrow ($35-$65).

‘‘We hold a fond place in our hearts for Worcester,” Anthony said.
That’s where the radio duo first shocked Massachusetts listeners almost a decade ago on WAAF-FM (107.3). They are now based in New York.


The tour features performances by Bob Saget, Robert Kelly, Bill Burr, Patrice Oneal, Rich Vos, Tracy Morgan, Ralphie May and O&A sidekick Jim Norton.

‘‘Being on ’BCN now, the logical place would’ve been Boston, or closer to Boston,” Anthony said. ‘‘But we’re hearing things, that (Mayor Thomas M.) Menino might still be holding a bit of a grudge.”

Ah, yes. The obligatory reference to their 1998 April Fools’ Day prank, when they claimed Menino died. That stunt got them fired.

This week they’re pranking Whoopi Goldberg, who debuted Monday on a different New York City radio station.

Opie predicted: ‘‘It’s going to be a complete disaster. She doesn’t have the work ethic to put on a good radio show. This is hard work. People don’t realize that.”

This comedy tour includes many of O&A’s favorite stand-up comedians, who often call in or visit the studio.

The show also includes a ‘‘village where there’s some fun things to occupy the fans.” Anthony added: ‘‘Little freak shows. Entertainment on the side.”
Accuse them of being sophomoric or childish?
They won’t deny it.

‘‘I don’t think I ever left my 20s,” Opie said. ‘‘I’m actually looking at buying a house for the first time. It’s strange to me. I’m not a big fan of adult responsibilities.”

Anthony said he enjoys ‘‘goofing on my friends” and being stupid.
‘‘We just got lucky that the job we had affords us the ability to do that,” he said.

[Bill Lehecka]

Does this count? This is out of Worcester...

Thursday, August 3, 2006
Enjoy shock jocks before they’re gone again

Scott McLennan
smclennan@telegram.com

Entertainment Columnist

Radio hosts Opie and Anthony became famous for getting fired. Twice.

Now the fast-paced and funny duo hopes it can simply stick around and enjoy its powerhouse status.

“Now we have mortgages to pay,” said Gregg “Opie” Hughes.


Actually, Opie and partner Anthony Cumia have a small empire to oversee, as the pair is broadcast on 18 CBS-owned radio stations and is a marquee attraction on the XM satellite radio network.

In returning to so-called terrestrial radio in April, Opie and Anthony found themselves back in Boston airing on WBCN-FM (104.1), where the duo handles morning-drive duties starting at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday.

As part of their return to conventional radio, Opie and Anthony are staging the “Traveling Virus” comedy tour, which is at the DCU Center in Worcester Saturday. Opie and Anthony and their constant cohort Jim Norton will be there as well as comics Bob Saget, Bill Burr, Patrice O’Neal, Rich Vos, Tracy Morgan and Ralphie May, all regulars on the O&A show.

“I think we give the comics a comfortable environment. They can come, hang out and be comedians. We’re not using them to set up material for us. It’s been a fun environment for them and it helps the show,” Hughes said.

Opie and Anthony’s return to regular radio salvaged the broadcast disaster known as David Lee Roth, as the one-time Van Halen front man was hired to replace Howard Stern once the king of edgy morning radio jumped to satellite. It took Roth less than four months to squander the massive ratings Stern earned for the stations that carried him, including WBCN.

Hughes said that as soon as Stern announced his plans to leave traditional radio for Sirius Satellite, Opie and Anthony immediately started planning a return to conventional airwaves, in effect beating Stern at his own game by establishing a presence in both broadcast formats.

Opie and Anthony both hail from New York but got their break when local rock outlet WAAF-FM (107.3) hired the duo to be midday hosts in 1995. O&A quickly established themselves as crude, cringe-inducing commentators typically fighting for gab time against the radio station’s music-oriented format.

“At WAAF we would maybe talk five minutes every hour at first, then moved to about 10 minutes of every hour,” Hughes said, recalling the time former general manager Bruce Mittman walked into the studio and said, “What do you boys think this is, a talk show?”

Obviously they did, as the two now do nothing but talk for five straight hours each weekday morning.

But all that yakking has in the past gotten O&A into trouble. The two were fired from WAAF in 1998 when they reported that Boston Mayor Tom Menino had died in a car crash in Florida as part of an April Fools’ Day broadcast.

O&A resurfaced in New York City and their WNEW-FM program was eventually put into syndication and picked up by WBCN, WAAF’s chief rival. The syndication was a huge success, until an O&A stunt that enticed people to have sex in public places ran afoul of Catholic groups when a broadcast insinuated that a couple was going to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Though no such act occurred, nor was any likeness of such even broadcast, O&A again found themselves fired.

In 2004, the duo and Norton found a home on XM Satellite radio. Upon coming back to earth, O&A has dramatically boosted WBCN’s morning ratings, gaining enough listeners to put the show in a neck-and-neck ratings race with WAAF’s Hill-Man Morning show which thrived in the David Lee Roth disaster.

Since last shaking up the airwaves in this area, Opie and Anthony have only gotten better, sharpening their banter, needling the status quo harder, and riffing more wildly on pop culture. Nothing is sacred, nothing is all that serious.

“Neither one of us can relax, or just coast, because we always want to keep it fresh,” said Cumia, who does all the voice impersonations on the show. “None of it’s scripted, and it’s not like we have a Friday thing, or a Monday thing to fall back on. It’s just what we can pull off live the moment Gregg and I get on the air.”

And part of the show’s edge comes from a basic insecurity in the O&A camp.

“We’ve been fired twice already and know we can be fired tomorrow,” Hughes said.

So listen while you can.