XM Silences Opie and Anthony???

pjalive21

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.

Mr.TambourineMan

who?

mammasan

This self censorship is getting way out of hand. I think it's time for the people to actually start standing up to this. People with XM should start flooding XM's customer service lines with calls to reinstate them or they will cancel their subscriptions. As for terristerial radio we need to use the same actions as the PC brigade and start boycotting advertisers for caving in to these people.

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.

suntzu98

We are getting to a point where nothing is "protected" anymore. My feeling on this is....had O&A actually themselves said the remarks I would understand completely for the suspension. However they did not say it a guest on their show said it, so if we are going to go down this road any host of any show should be held to the same standard! It is a pay service plain and simple, the FCC has no jurisdiction on this media and it pisses me the fuck off. I feel Bill Maher or Rush Limbaugh or whomever is a host and a guest makes remarks out of school should get the can as well, of I forgot Rosie as well however she already got the ax, guess now we have to hope for Bill Maher.

mammasan

suntzu98 wrote:

We are getting to a point where nothing is "protected" anymore. My feeling on this is....had O&A actually themselves said the remarks I would understand completely for the suspension. However they did not say it a guest on their show said it, so if we are going to go down this road any host of any show should be held to the same standard! It is a pay service plain and simple, the FCC has no jurisdiction on this media and it pisses me the fuck off. I feel Bill Maher or Rush Limbaugh or whomever is a host and a guest makes remarks out of school should get the can as well, of I forgot Rosie as well however she already got the ax, guess now we have to hope for Bill Maher.

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.

pjalive21

mammasan wrote:

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

suntzu98

I don't know if we are doing it ourselves I pay for XM and Opie and Anthony a buddy of mine already demanded free months...which he got but it shouldn't come to this at all, whatever your feelings are for them or for Homeless Charlie which btw he is really fucking funny.

know1

In private industry, your boss can choose to suspend you if she/he wants. If this was the government, that would be one thing, but I support private industry's right to police itself.

mammasan

suntzu98 wrote:

I don't know if we are doing it ourselves I pay for XM and Opie and Anthony a buddy of mine already demanded free months...which he got but it shouldn't come to this at all, whatever your feelings are for them or for Homeless Charlie which btw he is really fucking funny.

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.

pearljammerbeck

This private company promoted the shows on that channel as "uncensored talk." XM replayed the "deplorable comments" 3 more times that day (the show is replayed throughout the day). They allowed another portion of that segment to be aired the following day (and replayed 3 more times). At what point did XM executives decide that the content of the show was deplorable? XM is doing this because they are afraid of Al Sharpton's protests, but they'll soon find out that their paying customers won't stand for this bullshit. The show's been suspended, but word from people close to the show is that XM is firing them. If that's the case, then the number of subscriptions cancelled will make their heads spin. As it stands now, many of their fans have already cancelled their subscriptions to protest the fact that XM even took the step of suspending them. The fact is, subscribers who signed up to hear Opie and Anthony did not sign up for censored talk. We can get that on FM for free.

know1 wrote:

In private industry, your boss can choose to suspend you if she/he wants. If this was the government, that would be one thing, but I support private industry's right to police itself.

mammasan

pearljammerbeck wrote:

This private company promoted the shows on that channel as "uncensored talk." XM replayed the "deplorable comments" 3 more times that day (the show is replayed throughout the day). They allowed another portion of that segment to be aired the following day (and replayed 3 more times). At what point did XM executives decide that the content of the show was deplorable? XM is doing this because they are afraid of Al Sharpton's protests, but they'll soon find out that their paying customers won't stand for this bullshit. The show's been suspended, but word from people close to the show is that XM is firing them. If that's the case, then the number of subscriptions cancelled will make their heads spin. As it stands now, many of their fans have already cancelled their subscriptions to protest the fact that XM even took the step of suspending them. The fact is, subscribers who signed up to hear Opie and Anthony did not sign up for censored talk. We can get that on FM for free.

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.

pearljammerbeck

Maybe I should keep paying to hear every Yankees game. Oh wait, I get the YES Network and Susan Waldman's voice makes me want to murder newborns. I guess I'll get the remaining 11 months of my subscription refunded.

mammasan wrote:

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.

macgyver06

sirius wont be censored... and isnt XM owned by Clear Channel... they are nazis.

gue_barium

suntzu98 wrote:

We are getting to a point where nothing is "protected" anymore. My feeling on this is....had O&A actually themselves said the remarks I would understand completely for the suspension. However they did not say it a guest on their show said it, so if we are going to go down this road any host of any show should be held to the same standard! It is a pay service plain and simple, the FCC has no jurisdiction on this media and it pisses me the fuck off. I feel Bill Maher or Rush Limbaugh or whomever is a host and a guest makes remarks out of school should get the can as well, of I forgot Rosie as well however she already got the ax, guess now we have to hope for Bill Maher.

Just a clarification, Homeles Charlie isn't a guest, he's a prop.

My question is:

why did they apologize?

pearljammerbeck

Clear Channel owns a very small amount of stock in XM. They do not have enough stock in the company to have any say in this matter. They basically own a little stock and get to program a few music channels (which XM moved to their own little "neighborhood" in the channel lineup so they could replace those channels with similar channels without commercials).
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.

macgyver06 wrote:

sirius wont be censored... and isnt XM owned by Clear Channel... they are nazis.

bgivens33

So a private business doesn't have a right to control it's own content??

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.

azwyldcats

Who? Oh yeah, Howard Stern imitators without talent and Jim Norton a D level comedian. Zero. Point. Zero.

pearljammerbeck

Then they shouldn't promote "uncensored talk." The ironic thing is that XM's decision is costing them money because fans of the show are cancelling their subscriptions in support of the show. They rely on subscribers for their income, not advertisers, so why piss off the fans of one of their most popular programs?

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.

bgivens33 wrote:

So a private business doesn't have a right to control it's own content??

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.

pearljammerbeck

Yeah, cuz Artie's Beerleague did so well. How much did that pull in? $50,000? Oh yeah, that D-level comedian's got a 1-hour stand-up special on HBO taping in June. When's Artie's?

azwyldcats wrote:

Who? Oh yeah, Howard Stern imitators without talent and Jim Norton a D level comedian. Zero. Point. Zero.

mammasan

Howard Stern said it best, "If you want free speech walk into your closet and talk to yourself."

gue_barium

azwyldcats wrote:

Who? Oh yeah, Howard Stern imitators without talent and Jim Norton a D level comedian. Zero. Point. Zero.

Howard Stern has talent?