And there goes Opie. Gregg “Opie” Hughes has been terminated by SiriusXM, three years after his former “Opie and Anthony” partner Anthony Cumia was fired for making racist remarks on social media.
“SiriusXM confirms it has terminated its relationship with Gregg ‘Opie’ Hughes, host of the ‘Opie Radio Show’ weekday afternoons on the Faction Talk channel,” Patrick Reilly, the head of Communications for Sirius XM, told TheWrap in a statement on Friday. “SiriusXM does not publicly discuss internal personnel issues.”
Opie has briefly addressed his firing in a YouTube video, in which he finally got to share the vulgar sign-off fans were apparently clamoring for. Click here to see what that’s all about.
Public Relations boss Reilly was also the one to share the news three years ago, when Anthony was unceremoniously shown the door.
“SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel,” Reilly said back in July 2014. “The decision was made, and Cumia informed, late Thursday, July 3 after careful consideration of his racially-charged and hate-filled remarks on social media.”
Reilly concluded: “Those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents.”
Back in 2014, Cumia was taking photos in Times Square when he claimed to have been assaulted by an African-American woman who didn’t want her picture taken. He then went on a tirade on Twitter, writing a slew of offensive and racists posts about the incident.
According to Cumia, the woman was in the frame of one of his shots, and upon discovering this, immediately assaulted him, punching him in the face. He proceed to call her an “animal bitch” and a “savage,” referring to her as “it” and stating that “they aren’t people.” He described the race situation in America as a “battle,” adding that “we are losing.”
“It’s really open season on white people in this day and age,” he wrote. “No recourse. Fight back and you’re a racist. The predators know this. Good luck.”
Later, Cumia maintained that he “wasn’t being racist.”
Hughes and Cumia are no strangers to being fired. The duo was terminated from WAAF in 1998 for an April Fool’s Day prank in which they declared that the mayor of Boston died in a car accident. In 2002, they were canceled by WNEW after encouraging a couple to simulate sex in a church. There were also plenty of suspensions over the years.
Jim Norton’s and Sam Roberts’ show will continue on SiriusXM. Those two started their radio careers on “Opie and Anthony.”
Listen to Jim and Sam discuss Opie’s ousting above.