XM Silences Opie and Anthony???
pjalive21
St. Louis, MO Posts: 2,818
I THOUGHT THE POINT OF SATELLITE RADIO WAS SO YOU WERENT POLICED???.................SORRY IF THIS WAS TALKED ABOUT DIDNT SEE IT IN THE SEARCH ENGINE
XM Satellite Radio suspended shock jocks Opie and Anthony for 30 days Tuesday, one week after they aired crude sex comments about Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth II and one day after they made light of the incident in their broadcast.
"Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter," Washington-based XM said in a statement. "The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them."
Opie and Anthony, who last week apologized for the sex comments, struck a more defensive tone on Monday's broadcast. They lamented the state of radio and what they perceived as excessive reactions to comments made by themselves and other radio disc jockeys.
"We're under the same scrutiny as (National Public Radio) — it doesn't make sense," they said on Monday's show.
The pair also expressed sympathy for Don Imus, saying his career is now "gone, just because he was trying to entertain people."
Last month, cable network MSNBC dropped its simulcast of Imus' show, then CBS Radio fired him for using racist and sexist terms to describe the Rutgers women's basketball team.
On May 9, Opie and Anthony, whose full names are Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, aired a segment with a man they call Homeless Charlie. As the names of Rice, Bush and the queen came up, Charlie said in vulgar terms that he would like to have sex with each of them.
Opie and Anthony laughed as they imagined Rice's "horror" while describing a violent sexual encounter in which Rice is punched in the face.
Opie and Anthony were fired by CBS Radio in 2002 after broadcasting a call from two listeners who said they were having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
XM hired the pair in 2004. Because the show airs on satellite radio, its content is not subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission.
Opie and Anthony also host a syndicated, tamer terrestrial radio program for CBS. Opie and Anthony will be on the air for that program as scheduled Wednesday morning, CBS Radio said Tuesday.
A call to Opie and Anthony's agent, Robert Eatman, was not immediately returned Tuesday.
A spokesman for XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. declined to say whether Opie and Anthony would be paid during their suspension, calling it a contractual matter.
XM Satellite Radio suspended shock jocks Opie and Anthony for 30 days Tuesday, one week after they aired crude sex comments about Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth II and one day after they made light of the incident in their broadcast.
"Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter," Washington-based XM said in a statement. "The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them."
Opie and Anthony, who last week apologized for the sex comments, struck a more defensive tone on Monday's broadcast. They lamented the state of radio and what they perceived as excessive reactions to comments made by themselves and other radio disc jockeys.
"We're under the same scrutiny as (National Public Radio) — it doesn't make sense," they said on Monday's show.
The pair also expressed sympathy for Don Imus, saying his career is now "gone, just because he was trying to entertain people."
Last month, cable network MSNBC dropped its simulcast of Imus' show, then CBS Radio fired him for using racist and sexist terms to describe the Rutgers women's basketball team.
On May 9, Opie and Anthony, whose full names are Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, aired a segment with a man they call Homeless Charlie. As the names of Rice, Bush and the queen came up, Charlie said in vulgar terms that he would like to have sex with each of them.
Opie and Anthony laughed as they imagined Rice's "horror" while describing a violent sexual encounter in which Rice is punched in the face.
Opie and Anthony were fired by CBS Radio in 2002 after broadcasting a call from two listeners who said they were having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
XM hired the pair in 2004. Because the show airs on satellite radio, its content is not subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission.
Opie and Anthony also host a syndicated, tamer terrestrial radio program for CBS. Opie and Anthony will be on the air for that program as scheduled Wednesday morning, CBS Radio said Tuesday.
A call to Opie and Anthony's agent, Robert Eatman, was not immediately returned Tuesday.
A spokesman for XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. declined to say whether Opie and Anthony would be paid during their suspension, calling it a contractual matter.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Here is a fucking tip for the PC brigade. If you don't like what a radio host is saying change the fucking station. I used to get abit miffed when I would here people like O'Reilly and Limbuagh talk about the over the top pc mentality of this nation. After recent events I'm starting to think that they where right.
East Rutherford '98
Merriweather '98
Gorge '05
Vancouver '05
Los Angeles I,II '06
Santa Barbara '06
Fonda Theater '06
No one should get the can, specially on a pay service plan like satelite radio or HBO. It's utter bullshit and the fucked up part is that it's not even the FCC doing it. We are doing it to ourselves.
i agree with you here...100%
XM is out of line here and it could be the beginning of one of the nails in the coffin of pay service satellite radio
this is going to be a snow ball affect if XM gets away with this
East Rutherford '98
Merriweather '98
Gorge '05
Vancouver '05
Los Angeles I,II '06
Santa Barbara '06
Fonda Theater '06
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
I'm not huge fans of O&A. I listen to their show on terrestrial radio, since my ex-wife got my satellite radio, simply because there is shit on the radio at that time. I just find it ridiculous that we are censoring ourselves. In none of the recent cases of jocks being suspended or fired did the FCC play a role. All of them where done in because they said something that someone didn't like. I mean I would expect the government to try something like this. I didn't think we would be fucking stupid enough to do their job for them.
Well said. I wasn't paying for Sirius, before it was forcefully pried from my hands, just so I can hear a censored Howard Stern.
Just a clarification, Homeles Charlie isn't a guest, he's a prop.
My question is:
why did they apologize?
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The decision to supend O & A had nothing to do with Clear Channel. It has everything to do with executives at XM being pussies with no idea that their spineless decision would actually cost them a lot of money.
Stop screaming censorship... it was a business decision. Obviously XM is out to maximize profits and despite popular belief they are allowed to instruct their employee what they can and can't say.
And you're not leaving here without me, I don't wanna be without
My best... friend. Wake up, to see you could have it all
XM's decision had nothing to do with the content of the show. If it did, they would have cut the segment out of the replays (which they have done in the past). This was done because Al Sharpton waddled out in front of some news cameras and spewed his bullshit and XM was afraid of the big bad wolf. They caved in to pressure from people who had no leverage over them at all. The FCC doesn't give a shit if there was a controversial segment on the XM portion of the Opie and Anthony show. They have far more valid reasons than that for not approving the merger with Sirius.
Howard Stern has talent?
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except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
Loads of it.
The bottom line is that they are making a business decision. They weighed the lost subscriptions vs. a lawsuit and went with the latter. It all boils down to money, and if you don't think someone like Al Sharpton(or Jesse) has leverage... I'd take a good long look at the Imus situation. Though, not completely parallel, but it is close. I think people should focus their anger towards those two... not XM. This is CLEARLY not a "moral" stance against questionable programming, it's all about the dollar.
Many cancel the service. Some suspect a proposed merger with Sirius is a factor in the punishment.
By Jim Puzzanghera and Amy Kaufman, Times Staff Writers
May 17, 2007
WASHINGTON — Satellite radio bills itself as the Wild West of the airwaves, an uncensored outpost beyond the reach of federal regulators where expletives fly with impunity and the banter can get as raunchy as at a strip club.
But the decision this week by XM Satellite Radio to suspend shock jocks Opie and Anthony for 30 days for crude sexual comments about First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Queen Elizabeth II has listeners wondering whether there's a new sheriff in town.
Some XM listeners were outraged — not at the comments but at XM's reaction.
"I signed up for XM because it's uncensored. I like these guys because they are so unfiltered," said Placentia resident Paul Hebert, who canceled his $12.95 monthly XM subscription Tuesday in protest.
He wasn't alone. Hundreds of angry subscribers have flooded XM's operators with calls to cancel since the suspension was announced Tuesday. About 60 listeners smashed their XM receivers Wednesday outside the WFNY-FM studios in New York, where Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia continued to air their tamer, over-the-air broadcast for CBS Radio.
"The reaction is mind-blowing," said Ryan Saghir of North Branford, Conn., who runs a blog about satellite radio called Orbitcast. "One of the main attractors to satellite radio is the unregulated content. Once you take away that … you're going to have some upset subscribers."
But industry observers said XM might have been more worried about offending federal regulators, who can block the company's proposed merger with its only rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, than staying true to its slogan, "Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM."
Sensitivities have been heightened in Washington since the controversy over veteran shock jock Don Imus' racially offensive comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which led to his firing last month by CBS Radio.
"It's hard to read anything into it other than that they're catering to federal officials," said William Kidd, a media analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.
XM spokesman Nathaniel Brown would not comment on whether the pending merger was a factor in the suspension and would not say how many people had canceled their subscriptions. XM has suspended on-air personalities before, he said, but none with as high a profile as Hughes and Cumia.
It's not the first time a skit has landed the two shock jocks in trouble. CBS Radio, then known as Infinity Broadcasting, fired them in 2002 for broadcasting two listeners apparently having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Federal Communications Commission fined Infinity $357,000 for the stunt.
XM, which does not fall under the FCC's indecency rules because it is a pay service, hired Hughes and Cumia in 2004. Their program, "The Opie & Anthony Show," airs from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on XM and 24 CBS radio affiliates, which picked the duo back up last year.
It continues until about 11 a.m. only on XM, a segment that the show's website touts as "uncut, uncensored and totally filthy."
On May 9, the XM portion of the show aired a skit featuring a character called Homeless Charlie, who graphically described having sex with Bush, Rice and the queen. Hughes and Cumia played along, laughing and asking questions.
XM issued a statement condemning the comments, and Cumia and Hughes apologized on the air Friday.
On Monday's show, Hughes and Cumia complained about "dumb rules" and an "umbrella of morality and decency" that led Imus and some other hosts to get fired. XM officials suspended the pair Tuesday, saying the comments "put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter."
Satellite radio followers said the suspension was unprecedented. Some XM listeners were stunned and angry when they heard about it.
Ed L. Kelley of Wagoner, Okla., said he spent six hours on the phone Tuesday night trying to cancel. He's talking to an attorney about a class-action suit, saying that because "The Opie & Anthony Show" appears on one of XM's "explicit-language" channels, the company has violated its promise to deliver uncensored content.
"These guys make me laugh and they make fun of everybody equally," Kelley said.
Debbie Wolf, co-founder of People Against Censorship, called the suspension "outrageous" and organized the demonstration outside CBS Radio's studios. Christopher Lewis of Glenmoore, Penn., quickly registered http://www.cancelxm.com , and the message boards there and on other satellite radio sites have filled up with dozens of angry comments.
"I will not support a company that has decided the one true reason they exist no longer matters," wrote one poster on Orbitcast.
Howard Stern, who left traditional radio in 2004 after battling regulators, also weighed in from his new post at Sirius.
"If you want free speech," he told his listeners Wednesday, "walk in a closet and talk to yourself."
Kidd said the suspension could make it difficult for XM to attract edgy radio personalities who have viewed satellite as a haven for their outrageous acts.
"This will probably be a decision that XM will have to live with and, I suspect, likely regret over time," he said.
The suspension would be as surprising as HBO pulling "The Sopranos" for offensive content and will reverberate through the industry, said Tom Taylor, a former program director who edits the trade journal Inside Radio.
"People in the satellite world have felt safe … until this week," he said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-shockradio17may17,1,2999850.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true
No they based their decision on money. they know that the approval of the XM Sirius merger is in Congress' hands right now and they don't want to jeapodize that. Once again the 1st Amendment takes a back seat to the almight dollar.
i'd do more than that for a dollar.......
http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
I just said it was all about the dollar... did you not read that part? And as someone pointed out earlier... the FCC has plenty of reasons to not let the deal go through, I highly doubt they even care about a couple of radio dj's. This has nothing to do with the 1st amendment.
Sorry I sort of just glanced over your post. I think the 1st amendment comes into play here because satellite radio was always advertising as being a free for all. A place where you didn't have to watch what you said and where free to express yourself as you see fit.
Private businesses don't have to offer free speech. They are not bound to the same bill of rights as the Government is. You don't have the right to bring a gun to work do you? False advertising... maybe, but not 1st amendment.
That is why I edited it.
But XM is not the only ones footing the bill, the suscribers are footing the bill as well and as long as they found nothing wrong with the statement I don't see any grounds for the suspension.