On this day in 1996, Rick James passed away at the age of 31. It was a sad day for the sports world, but it was a day that will live in infamy for many of us. On this episode of the Red Apple Podcast Network's Red Apple Classics, host Sid Vaynerchuck and co-host Anthony Cumia discuss the loss of a beloved sports radio host and the impact it had on the sports landscape.
00:03:44.480So he couldn't just look at himself, look at the top of the mountain that he was on without wanting to kick anyone that was climbing up that mountain down.
00:03:55.420So he was very insecure, and he tried to stop us from becoming successful in New York City.
00:08:11.860And when was it exactly when this love for Stern, which probably was partly influenced your success early in your career, what was the day, what was the time, what happened when it all turned ugly?
00:08:26.660Yeah, I think it was when we had to have these meetings with Mel Karmazin and some of the bosses, and they told us directly that Howard doesn't want us talking about him.
00:08:39.760And it just completely, you know, spun my head around.
00:08:44.040For years, you're listening to this guy.
00:08:45.640He destroyed DJs in cities that he was syndicated into.
00:09:07.140But you're like, look, that's that's this business. That's what it is. So when me and Opie got to New York, we knew he was going to start ragging us. But we weren't going to turn around and not react to it. And we reacted to it. It was very well received. It was done in a funny way. And he could not take it.
00:09:28.900So instead of battling like he did with these jocks that were, you know, easy to just roll over, he saw some kind of competition in us.
00:09:38.540And instead of going with that and showing your strengths and doing what you do, he went to the boss, the big boss, and said, I want them to shut up.
00:09:53.920But when Mel Comerson tells you to do something, and Mel was paying you guys a lot of money, a lot of money.
00:09:58.460And Mel, Mel, I don't care if it was I Miss Stern, Opie and Anthony, when he paid you the money, he expected you to listen.
00:10:05.500But something tells me, Ann, that when he told you to calm down about Stern, that you guys may have gone the complete opposite direction.
00:10:14.360That was always the motive with the O&A show.
00:10:18.200Go complete opposite of what the bosses tell us, but in a way where we could turn around and go, oh, I thought, no, I thought you meant this.
00:10:26.800See, we didn't, because when he told us to not talk about Howard anymore, we took the clip from the Kid Rock song where he goes, radio edit.
00:10:36.260And anytime we wanted to talk about Howard, we talked about him.
00:10:39.180We didn't say his name, but we just hit the sound clip that said radio edit.
00:10:43.120Well, we get called into Mel's office again.
00:10:45.900He's 10 times as mad as he was the first beating and says, we know what you're doing.
00:10:51.560Don't, don't, you can't say, we were told not to ever say radio edit anymore.
00:11:21.200Hampton's Howie, we would call him that, where he would get on weekends.
00:11:25.200We would talk about it. We do a little thing on how we would go hop in the Howie copter from New York and it would it would go all the way out to the Hamptons where he would land and, you know, be with his Hollywood A-list celebrities and then come back to do his show and talk about how he's just like the regular guy and has all the same faults and foibles and fears.
00:11:52.900and it was all a lie it was all just a lie you know what's funny is with all that back and forth
00:12:00.500it worked for you right you became you were the best and and the audience loved you the most and
00:12:05.560you made a lot of money and i don't know this got about a minute to go but i'm gonna ask you this
00:12:09.380i feel like you never really hated the guy it was just that was the game he was the morning guy
00:12:14.620you were the afternoon guys like like you hate opie but you never really hated how i don't even
00:12:21.500really hate opie oh get out of here i i don't like him as a person i think he made my life very
00:12:28.360difficult during some years that could have just been a dream come true it was always this element0.73
00:12:34.720of uh you know my friend adam ferrara the comic he has a great uh phrase he said when he'd come
00:12:41.760in the house and his wife was mad she wouldn't say anything but he knew he goes because there
00:12:45.900was just this pissed mist in the house he walked into it and that's what the studio was like when
00:12:52.860i walked in it's like a piss mist that opiate you know just in the room he's mad and and you knew it
00:12:59.520and it just made everybody like oh god yeah but howard yeah uh i never hated the guy i i like i0.59
00:13:07.380said i lost respect for him i never really saw him they brought him in it was like the bat cave
00:13:12.900his studio you never saw the guy but but i heard that there were christmas parties where you guys
00:13:17.520would be in the same room even imus at the same time is that true uh yeah i think there was one
00:13:23.780one of those parties and then he probably told mel to not invite us anymore to those parties we
00:13:29.280went to one party as a matter of fact and there was a separate vip room to the company party the
00:13:36.240viacom cbs party and howard was in that room and we couldn't go in we weren't allowed
00:13:42.820to go in to the we were you know next to howard we were the show right and we were not allowed in
00:13:49.840the vip room of the cbs party because howard uh told mel not to let us god that's so fantastic so
00:13:57.040in the final 30 seconds now of this first segment if um if it is over and it's not you know it's
00:14:02.360not over you're right he's gonna take less money but if it's over and uh you have the chance right
00:14:07.700now to deliver the career eulogy thank god he's not dying he's a nice man but the career eulogy
00:14:13.680to howard stern coming from anthony cumia what would it be oh you know he started out amazing
00:14:23.460a shock jock perhaps but it was relevant at the time he got an audience that no one else was
00:14:31.580getting he seemed to be a guy that never apologized didn't make excuses just a juggernaut in the radio
00:14:39.260industry who just stayed in it too long he's unfortunately you know i was very sad to hear
00:14:46.360about the uh the horse the carriage horse dying yesterday yeah that's what howard is he's just
00:14:53.120a guy an old horse pulling the radio wagon until he dies in the street that is really a very
00:21:25.240You know, Joe, right. And he's on this show quite a bit. He was on yesterday. He never cared about politics. And he couldn't tell you. He knew some stuff, but he didn't care. It was if the Mets lost or the Knicks lost or the Jets especially lost. His week was ruined. It was ruined. Trump comes along. And I get Joe on now to talk about the Mets and the Jets. He won't shut up about President Trump. He now watches Fox News instead of SNY. He even watches Newsmax instead of yes. He's gone crazy.
00:21:55.240Yeah. Is that what happened to you? Well, it was a November evening in the year 2008 when I decided I needed to get a little more politically active. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It was when Barack Obama was elected elected president. Oh, boy.
00:22:17.320And I just knew, I just knew this was going to be a problem.
00:22:22.820And, but before that, I was, you know, of course, I, I loved Ronald Reagan, Sid.
00:22:30.160Well, Anthony was a great supporter of me and my wife, Nancy, with her giant basketball head.
00:22:40.320So back, back then, I, I enjoyed, are you telling me that Ronald Reagan
00:22:46.020used to actually refer to his wife's head
00:23:43.080It's so funny. And he does this on purpose because all the Democrat social media, liberal social media people were like, oh, this guy wandered onto the roof and he's he's losing his mind.
00:23:57.700He's got Alzheimer's. And meanwhile, you know, for four years, they sat there and watched that that puppet with with Alzheimer's Joe Biden and never said a word.
00:24:09.060No. And now, you know, the guys are in construction. He knows he goes up on the roof. He wants to check what's going on.
00:24:16.060And shouting at the press from the roof was hilarious. It's pure Trump. I think he's really funny.
00:24:24.080He's he's a president, unlike we've ever seen, and I don't think we'll ever see again. So enjoy it. Enjoy it.
00:24:31.060Yeah, you say that, and I've got this friend, her name is Siggy Flicker, and she's a very, very popular pro-Israel, pro-America.
00:24:39.360She was on the Real Housewives of New Jersey years ago, and she moved to Florida now, but she's very, very close with Trump.
00:24:45.100She's a civilian, doesn't work for Trump, not in politics, but he loves her.
00:24:48.940He calls her Siggy, her name is Siggy.
00:24:50.580So a few months ago, he was speaking at West Point, and he invited Siggy because Siggy happens to be best friends with Alina Haber.
00:25:00.200He actually flew her on Air Force One with Alina to West Point
00:25:05.180to watch the president deliver his address to the cadets at Army.
00:27:14.700That on your show, Opie and Anthony, the immense hit that was Opie and Anthony, you guys employed one of the most disliked current politicians in New York right now.