Radio stunt draws Menino wrath

Mayor Thomas M. Menino is chastising shock jocks Opie & Anthony and WBCN for broadcasting a live "Homeless Shopping Spree" yesterday where homeless people were given money and were taken to a New Jersey mall.

Boston's WBCN preempted its regular programming to air what the radio duo said was their fourth annual shopping stunt, which loaded New York City homeless people into a luxury bus and drove them to an upscale Short Hills, N.J., mall and broadcast their shopping trip. It was also broadcast on FM radio in Philadelphia and New York, and will be replayed tomorrow morning.

"This so-called "shopping spree" is a sick and twisted exercise that degrades the most vulnerable members of our society," Menino. "This is wrong, and we need the public . . . who care about the homeless and about basic human decency to stand up and tell them so."

According to a live broadcast of the program yesterday, more than 2,000 people showed up at the Mall at Short Hills to greet the homeless crowd and give them extra money as they shopped with gift cards from the Opie & Anthony show.

The broadcast was punctuated with jokes about how the homeless people smelled, how much they drank, and how irresponsible their shopping was, such as buying a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and a boom box.

"The show gave the homeless people nicknames such as Gray Wolf, Papa Rock, and Half-A-Hulk Face."

Opie & Anthony also made jokes about upscale shoppers' disgust at the stunt.

Attempts to reach the Opie & Anthony show and WBCN officials were unsuccessful yesterday, although WBCN marketing official Larry "Cha-Chi" LoPrete told the Globe's Names and Faces Friday: "It's been known for some time that the 'Opie & Anthony Show' isn't for everyone."

Opie (Greg Hughes) and Anthony (Anthony Cumia) were once fixtures on the Boston shock-jock scene. But in 1998, they were fired from Boston's WAAF-FM after broadcasting a false April Fool's report that Menino had been killed in a car accident in Florida. They then moved their show to New York, became syndicated, and Boston's WBCN picked them up in 2001. But in 2002, the two were kicked off FM radio after they staged a contest that resulted in the arrest of a couple for public lewdness for attempting to have sex in a vestibule at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The jocks then moved to satellite radio in 2004 and began the homeless shopping spree. They also began broadcasting regularly again on FM radio in 2006 .

Menino and homeless advocates said the show's timing was particularly bad because almost 300 volunteers will conduct an annual homeless census in Boston tomorrow morning. Matt Noyes of the United Disability Housing Partnership/AIDS Housing Corporation called the show a "disgusting spectacle" in a press release and asked the public to complain about it to WBCN.

Yesterday, the shock jocks responded to Noyes's complaints on the air, saying they were helping homeless people by making them "rock stars" for the day.

"These individuals and this station should be punished," Menino said.

Daley can be reached by e-mail at bdaley@globe.com.