Radio legend Anthony Cumia was the OG Cancel Culture victim.
Cumia, along with radio partner Gregg “Opie” Hughes, got fired from their popular show in 1998 for an April Fool’s bit falsely suggesting Boston Mayor Tom Menino had died.
The “Opie and Anthony” duo got the pink slip again in 2002 after two of their fans tried to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral as part of an on-air stunt.
More recently, Cumia got canned from SiriusXM satellite radio in 2014 for racially-charged Twitter comments. It’s why he created Compound Media later that year, a subscription service where he called the shots.
Now, Cumia says he’s coming home to terrestrial radio. It’s another sign, following President Donald Trump’s re-election, that the culture is more forgiving to the “permanently” canceled.
The broadcaster teased his Big Apple reunion with WABC-AM on X. He previously was heard on WNEW-FM during his “O and A” days.
Looks like I’m the newest member of the WABC Talk Radio family.
Details about show days & times to come next week. This will not affect my show on CompoundCensored at all.
Looking very forward to my triumphant return to broadcast radio in NYC.
Thanks to everyone at WABC Radio.— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) February 21, 2025
The new gig isn’t set in stone, and WABC-AM hasn’t officially announced Cumia’s arrival. The radio talker has spoken extensively about it via his CompoundCensored platform. Cumia merged Compound Media with Censored.TV in 2024.
Earlier this week, Cumia mentioned a contract is being drawn up at the station but he couldn’t share more details. He talked about being “shunned from the business,” and how the WABC-AM gig changed that status.
“Some people tell you it’s not a big deal, it’s AM radio. Radio’s dead,” Cumia said Tuesday on his self-titled talk show. “It’s not the truth of the matter.”
He lauded WABC-AM radio’s ratings and management style.
“They’re very cognizant of what the people want,” he said, comparing the station to his former satellite employers. “You look at a place like SiriusXM, they’re signing these Hollywood celebrities who know nothing about doing an entertaining show.”
“They’re very old-school radio,” he said of his new potential employer. “They wanna win … they wanna make some noise.”
The radio star said he will continue his Monday-Thursday show on CompoundCensored along with the new gig.
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The terrestrial radio return is the latest sign that Cancel Culture is ebbing. Cumia’s colorful history, including the 2014 firing that involved an argument with a black woman in New York, suggested radio had no use for his unexpurgated style.
It may help that Cumia leans to the Right, and in the second Trump administration, those voices have more power than before.
Cumia will follow FCC rules on his eventual WABC-AM showcase, something he’s not bound to on his CompoundCensored broadcasts.
And, if anyone thought the broadcaster has been pulling his punches of late, think again. His X feed is filled with riffs many would deem “problematic.” WABC-AM brass, apparently, isn’t interested in canceling him before he joins the station.
The culture is changing.
Cumia’s sharp-elbowed humor remains unchanged. Meanwhile, his decades-long radio competitor Howard Stern has swung aggressively to the Left and toned down his “shock jock” style.
WABC-AM, formerly the home of New York radio legend Bob Grant, currently features personalities like Bill O’Reilly, Rita Cosby, Mark Levin and Sid Rosenberg.
The post Uncanceled? Anthony Cumia Teases Return via WABC-AM Radio appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
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