R161/R162 The appeal of O&A was the comedians, the hosts, the staff, and the callers, not just the weird cast of characters they attracted over the years a la Stern. Another great thing about O&A was the lack of filtering, colourful language, taboo subject matter, and the tendency of not only allowing bombs & flubs to happen but using them to make the show even funnier; they’d steer into it, hence ‘car crash comedy’.

This was one of few places comedians could ever really let themselves be funny and authentic in a relaxed setting, some of which include now-legendary names like the dear departed Patrice O'Neal, Ricky Gervais, Bill Burr, etc. And O&A hit back any balls they were tossed harder than anyone, not just to pick on other shows or to be the typical shock-jocks, but with each other and their comic friends purely for the sake of making good radio comedy. They made ‘edgy’ comedians of the time look very tame, and hack e.g. Jeff Ross, the implied roast king, who very quickly got offended and uncomfortable in-studio when Jim Norton was just riffing (tsss) around. O&A & Friends were different to anyone else at the time; their show had elements of Stern, but so did everyone after him. Their show was the closest to what we bow think of as a podcast, sitting around with all your friends and just shooting the shit.

The best of O&A radio involved people who were either outside the show, or who were in the camp but somewhat reluctantly so. The pinnacle of their content is the time-honoured tradition of Jocktober (basically skewering terrible Morning Zoo radio shows nationwide), followed by: anything to do with Scorch (PFG/Weird News!); anything featuring guest comics Patrice aka Black Philip, drunk uncle Norm Macdonald, dumb lying mush-mouthed Rich Vos, or fat Bobby Kelly in the studio (Vos roasts and the relentless bashings they give poor Bawby are incredible); the many Steve C. (R.I.P. you huggable Bear) confrontations, and the frequent problems with the stupid entitled bootlicking interns, and; anything about Anthony’s trashy incestuous Italian family and disturbing impoverished upbringing on Long Island. The Jim Norton-led Bits can be a riot sometimes, but are usually highly overrated (though his early characters like Boardroom Jimmy, Ted Sheckler and RAMOOOOONE were gold), and between me and you silly geese & homosexual brothermen I don’t know why he was ever made a permanent third mic over all the other brilliant guest comics who became friends of the show (wormy desperation and availability, one supposes with hindsight).

For the record, Stern had a gag order put on O&A’s show for Infinity Broadcasting. Howard also later ordered O&A talent and staff not to address him or make eye contact with him or his staff while working in adjacent studios at Sirius XM. Howard may be a kingpin of NYC and he may have been the one who started it all, but he sure acted like a stuck-up insecure mean girl to his biggest and most successful disciple show for no good reason.

Hearing it live, the breakdown of Opie & Anthony’s relationship was really awkward, strange, and homoromantic at points. Listening to it back is excruciating; Opie was sobbing and getting depressed on air like a jilted husband/Fez Whatley by the end, and Anthony just sounded like a picked-bitter old vaudeville dame ready for the crook. It’s a pity, as they did have chemistry and did seem to be best friends for good few years back in the ‘90s/early ‘00s. Like any other rich old men, though, over time and with too much success they both got set in their ways as well as bone selfish and bored with their careers. Their political differences (Opie is Liberal/Democrat, Anthony is Libertarian/Republican) and their divergent sexual predilection (Opie is a vanilla married man who prefers older gender-normative lovers, Anthony...well, isn’t and doesn’t) may also have had a lot to do with it.