Weekly Rant: 5/20/07- The crackdown continues but with a twist

[jiggyjaguar]

This week's rant is about the crackdown that continues on radio across the country in the USA. Now this has gone from JV and Elvis being fired from CBS radio to Imus trying to get back on the air and suing the CBS radio folks for not paying his deal all the way threw. O and A got it again this week and that is what is bringing me to the rant this week. O and A have turned this on the people who turned on them. I believe this may signal a change in this gotcha and Imus society that we on the airwaves are living in. Which gives me a lot of hope for the medium and also gives me hope for the future of radio in general. Something that has been lacking since Imus got whacked a few months back.

This week did not start out well, with O And A. They were re-manded by XM about something a homeless guy said last week. Now they did not do the bit all they did was react to it. They however have since been suspended. Now O and A did go on-air and say they were sorry but then mocked the apology that was fed to them by XM. O and A were next day suspended from the air and CBS radio instead kept them on their air for the tamer version of O and A's program. So basically we all know what happens after your suspended from the air.

However once this leaked out about O and A being sent packing by XM for a month. Outraged O and A fans went down to CBS radio and smashed their radios in protest and close to 1,000 plus fans went out and canceled their subscriptions. A member of their fan base set up a website called cancelxm.com. The folks at XM have made no comments about the issue. However this was not the end of XM's problems.

Sponsors usually flee from a show in protest, that is what happened to Imus and in Stern;s formative years the same thing. However like Stern, the sponsors leaving embraced the new product and came back plus new one's got on board. In this case, the sponsors fled XM in protest and more are following. A lot of them have made the appearance that they will follow and support O and A in their quest to gain back on control of XM radio.

O and A have been mum on the subject of leaving XM for 30 days. CBS is now woke up and is behind O and A and have not went off on them for the bit. So what does XM do in this case, do they shit can O and A at the end of the month due to the outrage over the bit and since they lost sponsors in anyway. Or do they do an about face and let O and A return and bring the sponsors back with them? CBS would keep O and A on the air and would gladly take the new sponsors as well for the O and A broadcast on CBS.

My point is simple, I am glad that finally someone has broken into the whole, gotcha mentality that has gripped the nation since Imus. I was planning on penning this week's rant as O and A being victims on the list of people cracked on and mention how Rush and the boys are all next. However this is not happening because O and A have fought back with help from the people that matter the actual listening fans and the people who pay for time. Not some old grandma in Vermont who has never heard of O and A and heard about it from Fox News and MSNBC and not the actual show itself.


-The Jiggy Jaguar-

Editors Note
The Jiggy Jaguar Show can be heard Monday Nights on Kjagradio.com

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