Opie & Anthony

[John Beere]

from http://www.wackbag.com

"I have received word that O&A have been FIRED from XM!!!

I was told this by an extremely trusted source, and not an employee/relative of an XM employee.

Get on the phone, cancel your XM. DO NOT take the 30-day credit - CANCEL it! XM will feel that much more on their bottom line than a 30-day dip.

If XM feels the sting of thousands of people canceling their subs, then there is some sort of a chance!

-zag"

Pretty amazing if true... I pretty much tune into channel 202 all day every day at work for O&A and then Ron & Fez. I dunno but I don't really have a reason to pay for a subscription if this is true as you can stream Ron & Fez online.

 

[Dude]

I wonder if they will go to Sirius now. I've never heard of them other than you mentioning them in the past...

I wish Sirius would pick up Bob and Tom.

 

[John Beere]

In my area, South GA, we have no local programming to speak of. O&A has just about every big name around stop by. Hell, Ozzy was in the studio for 10~5 mins just this Monday.

Dunno about Sirius though... they are pretty much mortal enemys with Howard.

 

[John Beere]

For those that don't know, here is the reason they were suspended: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--shockjocks-sexcom0515may15,0,7414943.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

 

[RichBrewer]

I need to get out more! I've never heard of any of these people.

 

[user 4295]

Those guys used to be local here is Boston on WBCN for years. They were run out on a rail when they did this stunt where they announced on the air that the mayor of Boston was killed in a car crash, or something like that, while down in Florida. Well, members of his family were listening and absolutely freaked out! For good reason! They were canned shortly thereafter.

 

[Cheesefood]

This act is getting way overdone and is now completely unoriginal. I can no longer stand talk radio.

 

[Dude]

For those that don't know, here is the reason they were suspended: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--shockjocks-sexcom0515may15,0,7414943.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

I was lost as soon as they started to defend Imus.

I won't be wasting my time listening to them, for sure.

 

[dblvsn]

I've been an XM subscriber for years and never listened to 'em. I prefer music not talky talky. It does piss me off that satellite radio is supposed to be allowed to play the music with vulgar language, talk shows speaking your mind, etc... Sounds like XM forgot that people are actually paying money to hear that stuff and not the edited crap you hear on public radio and tv, where saying nappy haired ho can get you fired I'd love to call up XM and tell 'em to stick it but spending $100 on a new Sirius radio that I don't really need could brew me a lot of beer!!

 

[the_bird]

It just doesn't make sense. I've never been one who listened to shock jocks; I've never found Stern humorous, and never felt the need to listen to O&A.

But, what's the point of satellite radio if not to allow this kind of stuff, for paying subscribers who want to listen to it?

You know what the bigger issue is? XM is scared sh!tless of pissing off too many people in Washington; they need a LOT of help getting the Sirius merger through. The last thing they need is people getting pissed off and calling for increased regulation of the sat radio companies and all of that - they can't have ANY bridges burned right now.

 

[rdwj]

Those guys used to be local here is Boston on WBCN for years. They were run out on a rail when they did this stunt where they announced on the air that the mayor of Boston was killed in a car crash, or something like that, while down in Florida. Well, members of his family were listening and absolutely freaked out! For good reason! They were canned shortly thereafter.

Did he die in a crash or was it made up?

 

[grampska]

What sucks about this is that suspending your talent gives power to the Al Sharptons of the world who convince these companies that they're speaking for the majority when they're really just speaking for a minority which doesn't even listen to the shows in question. Yeah, I'm sure that Imus's target audience was young black women.

Anyway, O&A got suspended not for the comment, but because they agreed to not talk about the comment. They did and that's why they got suspended. Of course, the media isn't going to point that out so it sounds like more anti-free speech activists won.

I'm not going to switch to Sirius as that may be pointless considering the merger, but I will probably cancel my subscription to XM if they don't reverse this decision.

 

[SkaBoneBenny]

Did he die in a crash or was it made up?

It was a hoax, Thomas "Mumbles" Menino is very much alive and well in Boston.

 

[krispy d]

exept for the lack of baseball (come on merger!) sirius has better programming anyway.

 

[Cheesefood]

Most of you know that I have pretty perverse tastes in humor, but the whole "shockiest shock jock" thing just pisses me off. It's so friggin' templated now - everyone needs a retard, a homeless person, a midget, a drunk, a racist and an angry black guy. Then they pick a public figure to repeatedly target. There's no real creativity there.

As for Al Sharpton, his cause first made me angry until I figured it out. He's really trying to help his community. He's not just telling white people to cut it out, he's telling black people as well that they need to quit it. Racist remarks are just that - no matter who says them.

Yes, the black community has a lot of problems with perpetuating their own stereotype but they need the white community to stop supporting them. We're the ones who are now buying the rap albums. We're the ones watching the comedy specials. We are the target market laughing at the n**ga jokes.

I'll agree that this destroys free speech to a large degree, but blacks (African-Americans, or Americanized Africans as it should be called) are at a crucial point where they are finally getting respect. We finally have have a black man with a chance of becoming president. We have AA's in prominent places besides basketball and rap albums. They're heading corporations and creating real change, and those ugly stereotypes do not need to be on their heads.

The more people laugh at n##ga jokes, the more people will contrast Colon Powell, Barak Obama, Tiger Woods, etc to Shug Knight. We all need to get past that. It wouldn't be fair if every white guy was called a David Duke.

 

[Desert_Sky]

[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY[/ame]

 

[John Beere]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY

That was great! I love Patrice...

 

[Melana]

Did this get confirmed? Are they really off?

 

[Desert_Sky]

Did this get confirmed? Are they really off?

suspended


.....


*edit

wait, looks like they got the big boot from XM. Ok now im pissed

http://****xm.com/


replace the stars with f-u-c-k

 

[todd_k]

I was a fan of O&A a while back when they were still a 102.7 in NYC. I haven't heard them in a long time since 102.7 changes formats about once a month and now that they're on XM, I just see news articles about them. A few years back I was home in NJ during winter break in college, they were driving homeless people around to go on a shopping spree at a local mall in NJ, only catch was they weren't saying which mall they were going to. I was at 1 mall and a friend was working at another and we both noticed security was swarming the parking lots looking for these guys.
Normally it's harmless fun, f you don't like them, don't listen. Some people really enjoy this stuff so just change the station if you start getting all high-and-mighty.

 

[Dude]

Normally it's harmless fun, f you don't like them, don't listen. Some people really enjoy this stuff so just change the station if you start getting all high-and-mighty.

I know you did specify "normally" it is harmless fun, but I don't care who you are--if you are on radio and you start a false rumor that someone is dead, that is classless and crude and repulsive. Nothing at all is funny about that. They should have been fired for that, IMHO. It makes me sick to even think about something like that. I know I'll NEVER listen to it just because of that, no matter how many times they apologize (which I'll bet they didn't anyway).

 

[McKBrew]

The whole satellite radio thing sounds like the early days of Cable TV when the majority of us (at least where I was from- Northern Michigan), still had the antenna on the roof and could only pull in 3-4 stations. You were considered well off if you had the motorized antenna and didn't have to turn it by hand.

I remember, barely, in the early 80's when we lived in Montana and had cable, you'd turn to HBO or another channel and see ****s or hear cuss words in the middle of the day.

Now, in order to get the same programming from cable, you have to pay extra for adult content stations. Same thing will happen with sattellite radio, I think as more and more people access it, the more regulated it will become.

 

[John Beere]

I'll just say that I'm really more of a Ron & Fez guy than an O&A guy but O&A seems to always get the big guests. Forget the Shockjock stuff, it seemed like any given day you could tune in and listen to Kevin Smith or Quentin Tarantino just hanging out... or Patrice Oneal filling in (who is great).

Anywho, apparently due to the backlash, if you have an XM subscription and threaten to cancel due to the O&A suspension, they will offer you up to 6 months free service to not cancel...

 

[Dude]

Anywho, apparently due to the backlash, if you have an XM subscription and threaten to cancel due to the O&A suspension, they will offer you up to 6 months free service to not cancel...

That right there suggests to me they are confident a merger will happen. XM is already in a large enough hole--no way can they support 6 months without an income from all current subscribers.

 

[the_bird]

... or that XM is desperate to stem their subscriber losses because of what increases in those numbers will mean for the stock.

Analysts watch their churn rate EXTREMELY closely, if they see that shoot up, anyone who's left with a buy rating on the stock will downgrade, and any institutional money that's left is going to start looking for new homes. XM (and SIRI) have spent a TON of money for every subscriber they bring in; the only possible way for them to be profitable doing so is to keep them aboard a long time. So, they need to keep the churn stat as low as they can, even if it means taking a bit of an economic hit. Pisser how the Street works sometimes.

 

[HarvInSTL]

but spending $100 on a new Sirius radio that I don't really need could brew me a lot of beer!!

Sirius needs to offer all new subscribers that prove they are leaving XM free equipment.

Kinda the same way that when I switched from Cable internet to SBC i provided my most recent cable bill and they gave me 3 months free.

 

[Orpheus]

I know you did specify "normally" it is harmless fun, but I don't care who you are--if you are on radio and you start a false rumor that someone is dead, that is classless and crude and repulsive. Nothing at all is funny about that. They should have been fired for that, IMHO. It makes me sick to even think about something like that. I know I'll NEVER listen to it just because of that, no matter how many times they apologize (which I'll bet they didn't anyway).

That's almost as bad as, oh I don't know, claiming your finger had to be amputated!

 

[John Beere]

That's almost as bad as, oh I don't know, claiming your finger had to be amputated!

pwned!

heh

 

[Desert_Sky]

check this out. as of yesterday 38,000 people cancelled their XM subscription. And now sponsors are pulling away from XM also.

http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2007/05/17/another-shoes-drops-at-xm.aspx

It is apparent that XM Radio is beholden to crybaby special interest groups who cannot separate humor from reality. It is also unfortunate that XM Radio executives don't have the guts to stand up for their on air talent.