By Peter Goodman Staff Writer

August 23, 2002

Shock jocks Opie and Anthony were badly shocked themselves yesterday as a "sex in the cathedral" radio stunt got their show canceled by WNEW/102.7 FM, the station announced yesterday.

It was just a week after the Long Island-raised pair outraged tens of thousands of New Yorkers by broadcasting live an apparent sex act taking place within St. Patrick's Cathedral.

"Based on recent events, The Opie and Anthony Show has been canceled, and will be replaced by other programming beginning tomorrow," read the complete text of the announcement issued late yesterday afternoon. The move apparently took place so quickly that the replacement show had not yet been picked.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in Manhattan, who had been spearheading the protests, immediately accepted the move, declared victory and said he would retract his demand that the Federal Communications Commission revoke the station's license.

"I'm very happy, obviously," Donohue said. "I hope this sends a message to all shock jocks: the American people have drawn a line in the sand."

The fates of Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia were not immediately known. They have long-term, multimillion-dollar contracts with station owner Infinity Broadcasting and are syndicated on 17 stations nationwide. A source at Infinity indicated that the details of terminating their contracts are being worked out. "You won't hear them again on Infinity Radio," the source said. The station's general manager Ken Stevens and program director Jeremy Coleman had been suspended over the incident. It was not clear last night what will happen to them.

Infinity owns 180 radio stations; parent company Viacom also owns CBS and MTV.

Although the protest involved just one low-ranked station (the popular Opie and Anthony program was the only high-rated show on WNEW), the ramifications spread far beyond that. Pressure was already beginning to mount on the Boston Beer Company Inc., whose Samuel Adams beer was a major sponsor of the show. The contest during which the incident occurred was called "Sex for Sam III," the third in an annual series. Other watchdog groups were becoming involved, including Morality in Media and the Parents Television Council. Potential boycott targets included the CBS television stations.

The cancellation immediately increased previous speculation that WNEW might change its all-talk format. "I've heard the speculation about the format," the Infinity source said.

Additional pressure had been put on the station earlier in the day when FCC chairman Michael Powell announced the commission was beginning an immediate investigation. "I am deeply disturbed about the reports of an incident involving WNEW-FM and a radio contest involving sex in public places," he said in a statement, "and I have directed the FCC's Enforcement Bureau to proceed immediately with a thorough investigation of the matter." He cited the Catholic League's formal complaint, which included a transcript of the incident.

The investigation will continue despite the cancellation, according to the FCC. "We get a complaint, we decide to follow up, and continue with that," spokesman David Fiske said. "The licensee is responsible for the conduct of the station."

Meanwhile, the couple involved in the incident, Brian Florence and Loretta Lynn Harper, both from Virginia, and comedian Paul Mercurio, who described it on the air, are still facing criminal charges.

Yesterday's move appears to mark the end of the rapid rise and even more sudden fall of Opie and Anthony, who arrived at WNEW in the spring of 1998 after having been fired from Boston-area WAAF for a hoax in which they claimed Boston Mayor Tom Menino had died in a car crash. (The pair got their start on Babylon's WBAB/102.3 FM.)

At the time, WNEW was a faltering classic rock station with a great heritage but low ratings. After being told that a new station would be built around them, Hughes and Cumia proceeded to wreck WNEW. They insulted the other DJs, trashed the music and attacked the listeners until WNEW went all-talk.

Their outrageous and often tasteless stunts, as well as their undeniable comic talent, quickly drew a new and larger audience. Although WNEW itself never got high ratings, Opie and Anthony soon became one of the top afternoon shows in New York, and No. 1 among the advertiser-coveted young male listeners.

Their most notorious stunt, before last week, was "Whip 'em Out Wednesday" (WOW), asking women to bare themselves before vehicles carrying the WOW initials. They also specialized in setting up other lewd radio stunts.In June they were fined $21,000 by the FCC for other incidents, including songs with lewd lyrics involving young children. Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc