WASHINGTON — Satellite radio bills itself as the Wild West of the airwaves, an uncensored outpost beyond the reach of federal regulators where expletives fly with impunity and the banter can get as raunchy as at a strip club.
But the decision this week by XM Satellite Radio to suspend shock jocks Opie and Anthony for 30 days for crude sexual comments about First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Queen Elizabeth II has listeners wondering whether there's a new sheriff in town.
Some XM listeners were outraged -- not at the comments but at XM's reaction.
"I signed up for XM because it's uncensored. I like these guys because they are so unfiltered," said Placentia resident Paul Hebert, who canceled his $12.95 monthly XM subscription Tuesday in protest.
He wasn't alone. Hundreds of angry subscribers have flooded XM's operators with calls to cancel since the suspension was announced Tuesday. About 60 listeners smashed their XM receivers Wednesday outside the WFNY-FM studios in New York, where Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia continued to air their tamer, over-the-air broadcast for CBS Radio.
"The reaction is mind-blowing," said Ryan Saghir of North Branford, Conn., who runs a blog about satellite radio called Orbitcast. "One of the main attractors to satellite radio is the unregulated content. Once you take away that ... you're going to have some upset subscribers."
But industry observers said XM might have been more worried about offending federal regulators, who can block the company's proposed merger with its only rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, than staying true to its slogan, "Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM."
Sensitivities have been heightened in Washington since the controversy over veteran shock jock Don Imus' racially offensive comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which led to his firing last month by CBS Radio.
"It's hard to read anything into it other than that they're catering to federal officials," said William Kidd, a media analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.
XM spokesman Nathaniel Brown would not comment on whether the pending merger was a factor in the suspension and would not say how many people had canceled their subscriptions. XM has suspended on-air personalities before, he said, but none with as high a profile as Hughes and Cumia.
