Everyone bashes Opie for doing one year deals. That's how you get a raise every year.
Cumia was stuck in the mentality of a menial worker taking wage jobs and the WNEW days. His excuse for wanting long deals was so if they were fired they would have to pay out the contract. However, there was virtually no risk of the show being fired in the last 5 years it was on. There’s also some sneaky miscommunication fringing on fans not noticing: WNEW didn’t pay out O&A’s contracts because they were fired and had to. They had to pay out the contracts as a “non compete” so they wouldn’t go to another company. There was no guarantee nor basis that if the show were fired again SXM would pay them out, especially if there were reason to terminate the contract.
His other excuse for wanting long deals was this (I know, boring ass contract talk, bear with me.): In Anthonys scenario, they signed a 5 year deal. The first 2 years were each for a million. Then… the next 3 years you would get slight increases until your final year you were making 3 million. In Opies scenario, they would sign a 2 year deal where the salary was fixed.
With the declining popularity of the show those last 5 years, it may not have made sense, but it’s smarter in the context of the shows history: In Opies scenario they could come back to the table after 2 years, look at their listenership, look at how much profit they’ve brought to the company, and renegotiate another deal for more than the original 1 million. In Anthonys scenario they would have to wait out their contract before renegotiating, no matter how big they grew, and they would use the 3 million they ended on as the jumping off point and raise your salary less, NOT jumping off the original 1 million.
It was smarter in every way imaginable. Make 6 million, fixed, for 5 years, or you could potentially make 8 million in those 5 years by redoing your contract each year and having it be proportional to your popularity.
