Don’t think it’s safe to let the kids watch the news just because Bill and Monica’s X-rated soap opera is off the air.
Radio shock jocks Opie & Anthony took their sophomoric brand of humor to new depths Wednesday when they sabotaged an WNBC/Channel 4 news telecast.
They set up someone to creep up to reporter Melissa Russo and hold up a profane sign alluding to female genitalia as she delivered a live report.
The sign was visible for about 20 seconds.
Russo, who was reporting from 47th Street and Eighth Avenue on the New York Apple Tour Bus case, didn’t notice the sign before Channel 4 cut away to pre-taped material.
The duo yesterday laughed off the “prank” on their show, which airs on CBS-owned WNEW/102.7 FM.
“We’re not suspended, but [Anthony] and I will be doing the entire show standing up, if you know what I mean,” said Opie.
“It’s been a wild 20 hours … but I think we skated by that one, just barely.”
On Wednesday, they had alerted their audience about 45 minutes before the TV broadcast they were going to drop an “A bomb” on NBC. Afterward, they gloated, “NBC is truly must-see TV today.”
Channel 4 officials say they’re not considering any legal action against CBS.
But insiders say Channel 4 newsroom personnel were “incensed” and asked their legal department to consider siccing their lawyers on CBS.
Opie & Anthony also said they tried to sabotage a live shot on Spanish-language Channel 47 (Telemundo) – but were foiled before they moved on to Channel 4.
“I got really scared when it was actually going down – I saw our lives flashing by us again,” Opie said yesterday.
“I don’t think it’s over, though.”
The duo is best known in New York for its “Whip ‘Em Out Wednesday” shtick, in which the two implore women to bare their breasts.
They arrived here in 1998 from Boston, where they were fired for bogusly reporting on April Fool’s Day that Beantown Mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident.