Posted on 05/15/2007 11:58:58 AM PDT by DCBryan1
XM Radio Suspends Opie & Anthony
WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XM Radio announced today that the company has suspended Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, hosts of "The Opie & Anthony Show" and ceased broadcast of the show for 30 days, effective immediately.
XM Radio deplored the comments aired on "The Opie & Anthony Show" last week. At the time, the company strongly expressed its views to Opie and Anthony, and they issued an immediate apology.
Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter. 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.
As a company, XM provides customers with tools to control what they listen to on XM. "The Opie & Anthony Show" appears on one of XM's explicit language channels (XL). Whenever a radio is tuned to an explicit language channel, the letters "XL" continuously appear on the screen. XM frequently mentions on its explicit language channels that the content may be inappropriate for certain listeners and tells how to "block" channels that feature this type of content. Channel blocking is available through xmradio.com or by calling 1-800-XMRADIO.
About XM Satellite Radio XM (Nasdaq: XMSR) is America's number one satellite radio company with more than 8 million subscribers. Broadcasting live daily from studios in Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Toronto and Montreal, XM's 2007 lineup includes more than 170 digital channels of choice from coast to coast: commercial-free music, premier sports, news, talk radio, comedy, children's and entertainment programming; and the most advanced traffic and weather information.
XM, the leader in satellite-delivered entertainment and data services for the automobile market through partnerships with General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota, is available in 140 different vehicle models for 2007. XM's industry-leading products are available at consumer electronics retailers nationwide.
For more information about XM hardware, programming and partnerships, please visit
http://www.xmradio.com.
I may sign up for XM if those two turds get flushed forever.
Im gonna watch their stock if they do. SIRI and XMR have been under performing since merger talks...
I was totally suprised to hear this. They are PAID to be offensive. Glad to see a little sanity returning.
I am a subscriber to XM.
And I have never heard Opie and Anthony. It’s not why I purchased XM.
But I have to admit, this is really childish to suspend a program that is on a pay radio channel that is advertised for adult language, etc.
I don’t care what they say.
I thought radio and specifically sat radio was the last bastion of broadcast free speech.
So what if it sounds like a lockerroom?
Suspending radio personalities is the flavor of the month these days but suspending them from a subscriber service where the company warns its customers that it might not be for them, is comical..
Excellent.
Well I must be stooopid because I can’t find this article on the link? Help?
People need to lighten up.
It’s called crossing a line. Some don’t care but others do. It’s bad business to tolerate people who think that rape is something worth joking about. You lose customers that way. The ownership is sending a message that they as an entity are willing to enforce some rules.
I couldn’t find it either so I searched it out. Here you go
http://xmradio.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1452
Okay..
The word and thought police have spoken.
Who are these “others” you speak of? The offended? I don’t know of that organization but they seem to have everybody in their crosshairs lately.
These guys are compensated to be outrageous and line crossers.. And people are amazed that they are outrageous on the air?
I am surprised XM did anything. XM knew what they were doing when they brought them in to XM.. And they advertise the show on the other channels I listen too quite a bit..
Offensive or not, it’s on pay radio.. Turn the channel if it offends...
Turn it to one of the religious channels. But wait, that could offend the godless...
Where does this silliness of suspensions and terminations end?
I don’t understand. Why hasn’t Rev. Jackson or Rev. Sharpton spoken up in defense of Condoleeza Rice? Is it because they didn’t call her a nappy-headed ho? </Hypocrisy>
The company owns the station, and it is (and should be) their call. The market will respond. I don’t care about the particulars to be honest (at least any more than I would care if Joe Blow said the same thing in his living room), other than to celebrate the fact that the government didn’t meddle one way or the other.
Yes, and so was Imus. I think these two should be fired, just like he was.
Yes, and XM and Sirius want to merge and this incident can’t be helping their PR image.
I believe you have free speech confused with a license to do whatever you wish. Life has boundaries, and speech has repercussions. That is not childish, that's the grownup world.
Now if we can just get Rush Limbaugh and Neal Boortz fired for their offensive language.
We can not tolerate offensive radio anywhere.
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