O&A To return to Terrestrial Radio? (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/op...-lee-roth.html

Not just Orbitcast, but now E! is reporting that O&A will announce on Monday that their show will be broadcast on radio stations owned by CBS.

This will replace David Lee Roth in many markets. There is some debate as to whether or not this will result in a timing change of their program, and/or whether or not the fact it will likely be simulcast will impact the content of their show.

E! is predicting the value of the deal is in the tens of millions.

Whether or not this is a good promotional for XM or whether or not it denies them an exclusive will be hotly debated.

 

[dailW]

if i was O&A i would tell CBS to go pack sand.best of never works because fans want new stuff. if they go delay like CBS did with stern it will still suck. and if they have a right to talk about sat. radio when there done with CBS , CBS could come back to sue them just like the're doing with stern

 

[James St]

One of the things O&A like the most with XM is that they are given the freedom to do almost anything they want. There is no way they could do that kind of show on terrestrial radio. Both the content and timing of the show would need to be drastically changed. The only other alternative would be to air an edited tape delay in the afternoon or the following morning.

An interesting read on Blogcritics...

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/03/10/182232.php

 

[WillG]

As long as they don't have to change their XM show, if they get broadcast to terrestrial radio stations, more power to them. It will definately get them more exposure which has been a problem for them while exclusively on XM.

 

[WillG]

Looks like it is true. O&A are talking about it on their show right now.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This is actually great news!

The more people hear how fresh and talented
these boys are, the more of a reason that
people will tune off of Howard and move to
XM to hear the show "uncensored."

This is a great deal for O&A, and a huge
promotion for XM radio.

 

[James St]

Here's the NY Daily News article.

http://www.nydailynews.com/03-13-200...p-338257c.html

 

[Rich Malloy]

I'd say this dilutes the appeal of XM by a large margin, or at least to the extent that people are subscribing to hear Opie and Anthony. Like Stern's show on Sirius, most of O&A's XM broadcast doesn't run afoul of FCC standards. Would I actually pay a subscription to hear someone say "piss, shit, fuck, cocksucker, etc." unbleeped? Like the quote from the Daily News: "90% or more of our show," Anthony said, would be suitable for broadcast radio. That would be plenty good enough for me. If I could still hear Stern with bleeps on terrestrial radio - and not have to pay a subscription or buy Sirius hardware - I wouldn't be a Sirius subscriber.

And how in the world did XM get in bed with Clear Channel, and who in the company thought that was a good idea? Dancing with the devil.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Rich,

Let me ask you something.

Are you actually an XM subscriber who listens
to Opie and Anthony?

I ask this because if you did listen to their show,
you would realize that it's not something that could
easily translate to FM radio in the sense that the
entire show is often very foul -- especially due to
the efforts of Jim Norton.

Were the show to go to free FM, listeners would
only be getting a "taste" of what the show really
offers -- and that's fine by me! I think that
putting O&A back on free radio will put them in
reach of far more listeners than Howard Stern has
right now and gives those listeners the potential
to sign on as XM subscribers once they know they
can get an "adult" version of the show.

Believe me, if this move to FM is true, I don't
think O&A would have made a decision that they
felt would have hurt their career or their potential
with XM radio.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Oh no, I'm not an XM subscriber. I'm going by my experience with Stern on Sirius and Anthony's quote from the Daily News that James posted above: "90% or more of our show," Anthony said, would be suitable for broadcast radio.

Anthony may well be guilty of overstatement/puffery in that "90%" assessment, and I should allow for the obvious PR benefit of such a statement - for O&A's show, that is, not XM. Clearly, if potential terrestrial listeners think they're hearing the lion's share of the O&A show via terrestrial broadcast, they're more likely to tune in than if they thought they'd be hearing a wholly neutered version lacking all the good stuff. But I'd certainly have to allow that Anthony's may not be the most reliable assessment given the obvious interest he has in the success of their terrestrial broadcast.

But I do know the Stern show, and the Sirius version has roughly the same dynamics as the older version but including the possibility of that forbidden vocabulary made famous by George Carlin. But such language is still fairly rare on Stern - by design, it would seem - and although there's certain subject matter beyond the dirty words that would likely be entirely verbotten, I'd say about 90% of the Sirius Stern show is playable on terrestrial radio (you know, with the occasional "bleep"). O&A may well be considerably more raunchy on XM than Anthony indicated or than Stern is on Sirius.

It's not a tough call for me: if Stern was still available - though "bleeped" - on terrestrial radio, I certainly wouldn't pay for a subscription or purchase hardware to hear him on Sirius. Perhaps I'm not sufficiently fanatical about Stern, or at least less so than the average listener, but I suspect I'm not the only one who feels this way.

 

[John Mansor]

Has there been any more talk about this?

 

[WillG]

They were talking about it with Sean Hannity on their show today. They said they have been in negotiations, but lawers have been slowing things down. Opie speculated that at this point there is a 90% chance the deal will go through. They also said they don't want to do it if it will compromise the content of their XM show.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=186874