O&A in penalty box for a month; what will WBCN run?

[rapking]

What a load of crap. Not that I listen to them on BCN or XM, but if you take them off the beach and put them on subscription radio, where ANYTHING goes and does, then complain about what they do its BS.

XM and Sirius want to merge, there are some anti trust "issues" (more BS) and there are the moral minority types who want to impose thier morality on subscription radio. Is this XM's way of trying to appease congress and the FCC?

My prediction... CBS walks away from them, Toucher and Rich go to mornings on BCN

O&A does nothing wrong , Boston Mayor and the church love O&A .

 

[brightonboris]

This was inevitable. Only utopians could have believed the "say whatever they wanted" BS that both companies were putting out as hype. XM's a corporation and, despite what is put out for public consumption by its PR department, its primary allegiances are to its investors and advertisers, not the fry cooks and taxi drivers who think radio ought to sound just like "guy talk" in some blue-collar bar.

Well, the other elephant in the room is that the business model for XM and Sirius doesn't work and they're lobbying Congress for approval to merge the two services in order to survive. When their lawyers found out about the Condi Rice/Laura Bush/QE rape fantasies they must have damn near had heart attacks, making O&A instant liabilities. When your game isn't that strong, it usually isn't a good idea to let the manager of the team think they'd be better off with you out of the lineup.

Maybe the guy who originally put these guys on the air, Bruce Mittman, was right when he opined that they have professional death wishes.

Regards,
TSB

Well, in a political climate where it's perfectally acceptable in the mainstream media to make fun and openly bash anyone in the Bush administration, I don't think XM's board is too worried about these two clowns jeopardizing regulatory approval for the merger. O&A's bit is the least of the major issues facing the merger.

Besides, these guys are getting a full pay for the next 30 days and they sounded way too relaxed this morning on their CBS show so there's more to the story than being reported.

 

[TSBench]

Well, in a political climate where it's perfectally acceptable in the mainstream media to make fun and openly bash anyone in the Bush administration, I don't think XM's board is too worried about these two clowns jeopardizing regulatory approval for the merger.

Maybe, but why pull them from a satellite format, when this is the kind of programming that the subscribers are paying for and expect? I don't think that XM had a sudden attack of good taste. So I don't see any other motivation.

O&A's bit is the least of the major issues facing the merger.

But why needlessly give these pols and the FCC a chance to settle old scores. They don't have to say "O&A suck, so up yours" but only write the five magic words "not in the public interest" and XM. Sirius, or perhaps both are on the fast track to Chapter 11. No matter how it eventually ends up, merger or not, the pols win.

Dumping O&A as a sacrifice to the political gods, even if only as a token, has little downside. Only Stern has the horsepower to essentially do whatever he wants, since because of his deal, dumping or making Stern clean up his act would be like hanging out a going-out-of-business sign for Sirius, so he's off the table by necessity. Unloading Stern would be the equivalent of Chrysler making a deal to be bailed out by the government provided they agreed to stop making cars. Not so, O&A. My nephew is a congressional staffer, and he tells me that when the word of their stunt rolled through DC, a lot of folks, on both sides of the aisle, who mostly had never heard of O&A before, wanted their heads on a platter. Maybe getting them off the radar screen for a month will suffice. Maybe not.
But, either way, things aren't going to be the same.

Besides, these guys are getting a full pay for the next 30 days and they sounded way too relaxed this morning on their CBS show so there's more to the story than being reported.

Well, why shouldn't O&A be relaxed? Even if they had ended up getting canned, they wouldn't be worried about where their next meal was coming from, which is more than you can say for the shareholders and management of XM and Sirius. Its been speculated that it's a publicity stunt to get subscribers by drawing attention to O&A, but O&A probably rank somewhere below NHL play-by-play as a reason to fork over your $150 per year. Plus, the public has the attention span of a fruit fly. The only way to benefit subscriber-wise from this would be to keep them on the air and gather those subs who want to know now what all the excitement was about.

I feel that this entire thing, no matter how it turns out, is going to have a chilling effect on the media in general, same as the Imus flap which is already having repercussions. Personally, I think there should be NO limits (with certain limited exceptions, such as advocating the murder of someone, and with no exemption from the slander laws) on what can be said over the radio or television, provided the people listening know what the ground rules are beforehand and have made the decision to listen or watch anyway. It won't happen, but I'd rather they err on the side of incaution. As it is, I don't think O&A would be on the beach if it wasn't for XMs and Sirius' financial woes.

YMMV.

Regards,
TSB

 

[TowerBuzz]

This was inevitable. Only utopians could have believed the "say whatever they wanted" BS that both companies were putting out as hype. XM's a corporation and, despite what is put out for public consumption by its PR department, its primary allegiances are to its investors and advertisers, not the fry cooks and taxi drivers who think radio ought to sound just like "guy talk" in some blue-collar bar.

Well, the other elephant in the room is that the business model for XM and Sirius doesn't work and they're lobbying Congress for approval to merge the two services in order to survive. When their lawyers found out about the Condi Rice/Laura Bush/QE rape fantasies they must have damn near had heart attacks, making O&A instant liabilities. When your game isn't that strong, it usually isn't a good idea to let the manager of the team think they'd be better off with you out of the lineup.

Maybe the guy who originally put these guys on the air, Bruce Mittman, was right when he opined that they have professional death wishes.

Regards,
TSB

Well, in a political climate where it's perfectally acceptable in the mainstream media to make fun and openly bash anyone in the Bush administration, I don't think XM's board is too worried about these two clowns jeopardizing regulatory approval for the merger. O&A's bit is the least of the major issues facing the merger.

Besides, these guys are getting a full pay for the next 30 days and they sounded way too relaxed this morning on their CBS show so there's more to the story than being reported.

OH come now Boris you just proved your point.It was perfectly acceptable to bash teh Clinton administration becuase of nothing he did politically but his own personal, sexual predelictions. THe Bush administration has been scandal ridden since the beginning of his second term. Most presidents only decline in their second ter, they fall from favor as skeletons fall out of the closet. Considering that this merger has to pass, SEC, DOJ, COngressional, and finally FCC muster you cannot intellingently say that O and A 's bit will have no bearing on the merger. The conervative tone of the country in regard to "shock talk" right now affects the views of congress, the DOJ, and especially the FCC. WHile the merger was already rife with problems of tryinig t navigate these political waters, O and A's latest stunt only rabbed salt in an alread open wound which the merger is a form of bandage for. In other wrods of course this will affect the merger, there is no question, becuas ethe mmerger has to be approvaed by people, people who have to answer in some cases to their voting constituence.

 

[theAguy]

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