News Opie and Anthony suspended

Opie and Anthony suspended

Now Satellite radio isnt even safe from censorship!

BULLSHIT. IM cancelling my XM if they are fired.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i46b00c7ea4be2996a5a3fda0132851d3

Add Opie & Anthony to the growing list of shock jocks who have behaved badly enough to warrant silencing. But at least the duo has the distinction of being the first to be bounced from satellite radio, where government rules restricting raunchy content do not apply.

In an ironic twist, XM Satellite Radio said Tuesday that it has suspended "The Opie & Anthony Show" for 30 days, though the pair will still do their program on CBS Radio, where speech codes are far more stringent than they are on pay radio.

Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia first raised the ire of listeners when they broadcast May 9 the rantings of a character they call Homeless Charlie, who fantasized about having violent sex with Laura Bush, Condoleezza Rice and Queen Elizabeth II.

They apologized two days later, but on Monday they called on their competitors -- most notably, Howard Stern -- to join them in defense of the right of shock jocks everywhere to be, well, shocking.

"Are you with us or against us?" they asked, referencing such recently fired radio talkers as Don Imus and "JV and Elvis." Then they told listeners that while they didn't have the FCC restricting their language, they still must follow XM's "dumb rules." That apparently was too much for XM to take.
Advertisement


"Comments made by Opie & Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter," XM said Tuesday in announcing their suspension.

The pair's Homeless Charlie bit came at a particularly thorny time as XM is trying to get permission to merge with Sirius Satellite Radio. Some on Wall Street predicted last week that XM eventually would have to punish Opie & Anthony if for no other reason than to curry favor among lawmakers, who are deciding whether to give the proposed merger the thumbs up.

Others are using the travails of the nation's shock jocks to make a stealth appeal for the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine.

Several Democrats in Congress have been citing comments made by Opie, Anthony, Imus, JV and Elvis as proof that discourse on radio is so coarse that more government regulation -- by way of a new Fairness Doctrine -- is needed.

But the aim of the Fairness Doctrine, abolished in 1987, was basically to guarantee that broadcast licensees carried as much left-leaning political opinion as they did right-leaning opinion and had little to do with the vulgarity of shock jocks.

Such stars of talk radio as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have been suggesting that Democrats -- including presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich -- who attack shock jocks are laying the groundwork for introducing stricter regulation of talk radio, a medium dominated by conservatives.

Radio talker Glenn Beck broached the subject Monday on CNN, telling an audience that liberal activists are "trying to shut people down. If you look at the people that are on the shock-radio list, you will see that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and I am on that list. Gee, I don't know the last time that I was doing sex calls."

Some activists already have called for the sanctioning of Limbaugh for his "Barack the Magic Negro" parody song sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon." The song quotes from a Los Angeles Times opinion piece that called Barack Obama a "magic negro" for his ability to attract voters of all races.

Opie & Anthony's gaffe is the latest in a string of examples whereby offensive utterances made on radio find their way to the Internet blogosphere -- most notably onto the Drudge Report -- then are dissected by TV news broadcasters, who turn the comments into a national debate.

The now-infamous remarks made April 4 by Imus, for example, created a media firestorm that culminated in a Time magazine cover story and the canceling of his CBS Radio show and MSNBC TV simulcast.

More recently, Jeff Vandergrift and Dan Lay, known as JV and Elvis, were fired, again by CBS, for a segment that mocked Chinese restaurant employees for their English-language skills. Although that bit aired one day after Imus' "nappy headed hos" commentary, it didn't receive nearly as much scrutiny, and CBS didn't fire JV and Elvis until Friday.

Opie & Anthony have a unique arrangement in radio, broadcasting a portion of their show on CBS and XM and another portion -- deemed too controversial for free radio -- on XM exclusively. CBS said Tuesday that it has no plans for taking the pair off the air.

Stern, a longtime Opie & Anthony nemesis whose Sirius Satellite Radio show is far too raunchy for free radio, said publicly after Opie and Anthony signed their XM-CBS hybrid deal, "I can't imagine how difficult their job is going to be -- having to go on regular radio and deal with CBS since their act is edgy."

Its ridiculous. Im cancelling my XM

Nah, its from the XM side.
They are still on the air on CBS.

Copying Stern?!?!?! Thats fucking bullshit. Stern is dried up...hes a hack.

(And this is coming from a long time Stern fan, up until a few years ago when his show went to shit)

Dont you mean conservatives?

I did the same thing...I took the three months, only because I want to see what actually happens in regards to them being fired or not.

I like Ron and Fez too much to cancel it totally right now

That Howard has brought to Sirius??? LOL. Okay, we can start the "Sirius's membership has multiplied by 10 since the announcement"......but I can assure you, you will lose that argument. Why is it that all Howard listeners seem to think that every single new subscriber since they announced the Sirius/Howard deal signed up because of the announcement? Thats ludicrous. A small percentage of the new subscribership is because of Howard...and even then, the increase hasnt been all that much anyways.

Howard is a hack...and hes one of the biggest bullshitters in the industry.

Hoo Hoo Robin, I invented the internet.....Hoo Hoo Robin, I invented MTV Unplugged...Hoo Hoo Robin, I was invented breathing.

Every station he is on has lost 90% of the listeners? Do you believe EVERYTHING that youre told on the Stern show? LOL Are you basing the 0.0 listenership on the radio guy that was on the Stern show? That then was called out on the O+A show for LYING about it??

And I also find it funny that everyone is saying "Well, since Artie joined the show, its gotten better!"......what does THAT say about Howard??

Here, check out the stats for yourself:


Now explain to me how you can say that the increase in Sirius membership is based solely on Stern coming to Sirius? I guess the same can be said about O+A increasing XM membership after they started on XM.


Now, I want it to be known that I havent said that Stern isnt funny....cuz humor is different for everyone. Ive just gotten sick of his whining, and his bold faced lies. I was a HUGE Stern fan in the late 80s and 90s. Hes lost his touch.

BTW it should be noted that Howard Stern moved to Sirius January 2006 (Q1) and O&A joined XM in August of 2004 (Q3/Q4) if we're going to start looking at the when and where of increases in subscriber activity.

I used to like Stern myself as well... I think he's just gotten burned out.

For the record. I own stock in both SIRI and XMSR as well as I have accounts with both.

Exactaumundo.

And lets also include what actually is considered a new subscriber.....

Exactaumundo.

And lets also include what actually is considered a new subscriber.....

All Im saying is that the increase that occured after the Howard announcment isnt all that much. It was basically the same increases that has been occuring before. Xm and Sirius have been increasing at the same increment basically.

Ive been involved in other threads regarding this, and I assure you, Im basing this all on factual evidence put out by both XM and Sirius and other tracking companies. I shouldnt believe what they are saying?

NOT what O+A says....where have I said anything about what Ive heard on O+A?

Here ya go...some of my statements from a thread in December 2006:

Debatable figures there....its funny how Stern fans inflate facts just like Stern. Considering there are currently only 4.5 million Sirius subscribers, your figures are WAY off base. 1.5, 2 million subscribers since Stern, TOPS. And a small percentage of that 2 million is because of Stern. Hate to burst ya bubble there. At the start of 2006.....there were 3.3 million Sirius subscribers. The increase in subscribers for the entire year of 2006 is the same between XM and Sirius. What does that show ya?

You all try to make it seem like every new Sirius subscriber subscribes because of Stern....lol. The increase in subscribers has been pretty much even every single year.....yeah, the jump over the last year has increased slightly, but not enough to go ga ga over it. And of course any Stern fan will claim its because of stern, and somehow forget about increased marketing, increased contracts with car companies, etc. (and the plain and simple fact that people are adapting to technology and going towards satellite radio. )

Stern claims that he personally brough the membership from 600k to over 6 million. (Over 6 million huh....hows that, considering that in September 6 million was Sirius's "projected" membership number). Thats BS. Prove ME wrong. Ive already posted up the current subscription numbers, with the years of each. He is way off base.

By that logic, I could easily say that O+A have increased XM membership from 2 million to over 8 million. Prove THAT wrong And that is with very little "HYPE".

Stern isnt doing as well as everyone thought he would do...Stern was the MAIN MAN before he went to air, and shortly after. He was all that Sirius Reps could talk about. Nowadays his mention is farther down the list......apparently they are scared of "putting all of their eggs in one basket".......

Its funny how everyone claims its only O+A fans calling out Stern, making threads, etc. Stern fans are pretty quick to jump in the fray though. Its just so easy for O+A fans to call out Stern after his bold faced lies.

I used to be a devoted Stern listener. It got old.


Sirius: As of September 30, 2006, we had 5,119,308 subscribers
XM Total Ending Subscribers 6,899,871 June 30, 2006

Just so we're understanding that he's overstating his numbers and understating XMs and that's a difference of three months too.

FACT: Stern claims he had brough 6 million listeners to Sirius. FACT: That is a bold faced lie

There are channels on XM that are censored on purpose, it's a channel thing, not a song thing. It's just the way they are. It was setup that way in order to cater to both people who enjoy listening to some of the music without the colorful language additions. There are plenty of uncensored channels on XM that play the same songs, but unedited.

I havent heard commercials on the channels I cycle through.

O+A has commercials though....they stay on air for over an hour, and then have about 5 minutes of commercials.