Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Opie and Anthony

This really is weird, this story over Opie and Anthony:

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

Just remember, pissing off hte management is much worse than anything else you can do.