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How's that working out, by the way?
Following Howard to satellite around the same time (though to XM) was the radio pairing of "Opie and Anthony," who found themselves out of work after running a radio contest that had two listeners having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Before their debut, they too made public statements looking forward to the more friendly skies of satellite radio. Over the years, they also added on three hours of broadcast-friendly programming heard on WFNY-FM, a CBS station – with the result being that they are heard both on XM and FCC-regulated radio from 6am-9am every morning. They can then whip out the blue material for an XM-only program from 9am-11am.
In the end, it took them all of three years to go out of bounds on a medium supposedly without boundaries: XM announced yesterday that the pair had been suspended for 30 days because of a segment aired on their XM-only program last week. The AP report reads>:
On May 9, Opie and Anthony, whose full names are Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, aired a segment with a man they call Homeless Charlie. As the names of Rice, Bush and the queen came up, Charlie said in vulgar terms that he would like to have sex with each of them.Why is this is a particularly interesting story? Because for years the FCC has had the role of school principal, scolding and punishing unruly behavior on-air – as listeners (and advertisers) enjoyed seeing just how far radio personalities could push the envelope from day to day. But what the Opie and Anthony suspension teaches us is that even though the FCC can't reel in "shock jocks" when they are on satellite radio, there are still boundaries. Now, however, it's the satellite companies themselves who decide where the lines are drawn.Opie and Anthony laughed as they imagined Rice's "horror" while describing a violent sexual encounter in which Rice is punched in the face.
Note: Because the segment in question was aired on XM satellite radio and not broadcast over WFNY's signal, CBS Radio has not taken any action against Opie and Anthony as of this posting.