Guess I will offer a different perspective. Today I sent a fairly blistering email to XM expressing my disappointment of their suspension.
I'm not a hard core O&A listener but I do listen occassionally, usually catching the re-airs later in the day or on weekends. I was a long time Stern listener when I spent a lot of time behind the wheel, and initially found O&A to be too much like him but warmed up to the boys over time. I'm not a "pest" and don't follow them like a lost puppy, just a casual fan.
What ticked me off about XM's decision were three main things:
(1) XM satellite radio is a *subscriber only* service. That means I have to pay to listen. If I don't want to listen to XM, I can simply not pay and listen to regular radio, CD's, cassettes or my iPod. But since I do pay, I strongly feel I should get 100% of the content due me. When XM mgmt decided to suspend O&A, they're denying me the content I pay for, whether I listen to them or not.
(2) The type of entertainment provided by O&A is not for everyone and certainly not for the squeamish or easily offended. I've yet to hear them say or do anything I found terribly offensive but there has been content I thought was dumb or boring. When that happens, I change the channel. Simple as that. If I don't like what I hear, I listen to something else. When XM decided to suspend O&A, they basically told me I am not able to exercise good judgment as an adult with regards to what I listen to. Obviously, I'm not happy about that.
(3) The conflict with O&A and XM mgmt should have been handled privately without punishing paying subscribers. I know mgmt told the boys to cool it and they didn't, which is why they got suspended. XM's press release basically admits they did this to teach them a lesson. But that's not going to work because it hasn't in the past. All it will do is energize them and reinforce their opinions that they are industry pariahs. There had to have been another way to handle this issue than suspending them. The boys come across as a pretty lucid pair so I find it hard to believe a compromise could not have been reached.
Bottom line is the only loser (IMO) is the paying subscriber. The rules in satellite radio are different and people are paying money to enjoy the relaxed restriction on speech and content. If subscribers don't want to listen to O&A, they can easily block the channel. All subscribers are reminded of objectionable content via the "XL" extreme language channel tag. It is super easy for any subscriber to avoid content they do not want to hear.
O&A are the marquee talent on XM. They are constantly promoted all over the place. O&A's history was well known so XM cannot say they didn't know they'd say nasty things. This is a bad decision by XM mgmt and I hope they realize it and change their minds before people just give up on the idea of satellite radio.
