‘Opie & Anthony’ dumped by WYSP

WYSP (94.1) today parted ways with

Opie & Anthony

, its syndicated morning show.

WYSP, which last month announced it would return to rock, will play music in morning drive tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, said its general manager, David Yadgaroff.

Since April 2006, the freewheeling, New York-based personalities aired on WYSP and as many as 11 Infinity/CBS stations in a unique partnership with XM Satellite Radio.

Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia replaced the ratings-deprived David Lee Roth, who lasted only four months. Roth, the rocker-cum-pundit, had the unenviable task of following ratings juggernaut Howard Stern when Stern left for Sirius Satellite Radio in late 2005.

WYSP was alone today in jettisoning O&A, whose ratings have been tepid among listeners ages 18 to 34; in September, the show had actually risen - into 10th place.

Six other CBS stations now air O&A, said a CBS spokeswoman, who added that she had no announcements about the other stations' plans.

Kidd Chris, the station's afternoon host, is one of several candidates for the morning show, Yadgaroff said.

Robert Eatman, O&A's manager, did not immediately return a call for comment.

In 2002, O&A created a stink during their first tour of duty with CBS Radio when they broadcast audio of a couple supposedly having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. The pair were pulled off the air after the Federal Communications Commission accused them of indecency and threatened fines.

XM hired them in October 2004, and they thrived in the unbowdlerized world of satellite radio.

When XM offered to share them with CBS 18 months ago, the two were hailed as saviors.

"Oddly enough, our goal a few years ago was just to get work," Cumia told the Associated Press in 2006. "We wanted to get a job."