Opie Reenters Earth’s Atmosphere

Numerous sources, including Variety, have confirmed that Gregg “Opie” Hughes has been fired by SiriusXM. The news of his termination was delivered in a terse company statement that read, “SiriusXM confirms it has terminated its relationship with Gregg ‘Opie’ Hughes, host of the Opie Radio Show weekday afternoons on the Faction Talk 103 channel. SiriusXM does not publicly discuss internal personnel issues.” The reasons for Hughes’ ouster were not revealed, but rumors have been circulating that it had something to do with a video of an employee using the restroom. At press time Opie himself had not yet addressed this issue on social media, but his Twitter feed is certainly loaded with candid fan comments.

Hughes’ abrupt departure comes nearly three years to the day since his erstwhile partner, Anthony Cumia was loudly fired by the satcaster. Opie was famously half of the Opie & Anthony show with Anthony Cumia, which ran for years on WAAF/Boston, the late WNEW/New York and in briefly in syndication until that venture was derailed after now-infamous “Sex for Sam” stunt went horribly awry. In 2004 the show made the move to XM, where it lasted until 2014, when Cumia was fired. Perhaps you heard something about that… Opie soldiered on with comedian and longtime O&A co-host Jim Norton until last year, when Norton launched his own show, co-hosted by former O&A producer Sam Roberts. Opie Radio had been airing weekdays from 3-6pm ET since October 2016.

Another telling sign of Hughes’ departure was that all evidence of Opie’s existence (including his show’s On Demand offerings) has been deleted from the SiriusXM site. His now former 3-6pm timeslot is now identified, simply, as Faction Talk.