"Veteran broadcaster
Anthony Cumia gave a hilarious after-dinner talk about his career in broadcasting. He got his big career break after making a
parody song about O.J. Simpson to the tune of “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.” It became a great local hit and was his springboard to becoming half of the “Opie & Anthony” show, which debuted during the golden age of “shock jock” radio. Regulation and consolidation bought that to an end. Due to regulatory changes under the Clinton Administration, hundreds of radio stations were swept up by immense conglomerates, so there were no longer identifiable station owners to whom program hosts could appeal if there was controversy. Political correctness increased and activists could more easily lobby for content control, because “headquarters” saw radio as just one part of diapers-to-dogfood empires.
Mr. Cumia told a remarkable story: After he was suspended for a mild racial joke, the network made a big donation to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and gave it a radio show in compensation. Now totally independent with regular shows of his own, Mr. Cumia called for the restoration of free speech and marveled at the opposition American Renaissance faces. “Talking about our beliefs is the most fundamental thing we do as Americans!” he exclaimed. “And people try to destroy us for it!”