Sirius XM recently fired Anthony Cumia over harsh Tweets he made toward a black woman he claimed punched him in the face on the street. He has been unrepentant, refusing to apologize.
I won't repeat the nastiness he unveiled but if you're really curious, you can read some of them here.
Cumia told Fox News' "Red Eye" he never used specific racial invective, choosing terms like "savage" and "animal" instead, saying she got violent for no reason. But those are code words a lot of racists have used against blacks so his defense was pretty weak. Co-host Andy Levy even said: 'How can you say it's not racist? How can you say that?''
His defense is he talks like that all the time on his "Opie & Anthony" show and nobody complains. Then again, his audience is used to it.
‘‘People who listened to me on the air would have known, ‘Yeah, he talks like that on the show all the time,'’’ Cumia told Fox. ‘‘For 10 years at SiriusXM, I had spoken like that, stringing together lines of obscenities in nonsensical fashion.’’
"Opie & Anthony" was part of the second generation of morning hosts that followed the path of Howard Stern. And their profane jocular on-air "Man Show" approach fit satellite radio quite well.
For the time being, Opie Hughes and co-host Jim Norton will fulfill the rest of the contract.
I'm sure the morning show at Star 94 won't miss them. (They were mocked last October as part of a segment that makes fun of terrestial morning radio shows.)
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Sirius/XM, which has about 26 million subscribers, is dropping three channels and adding three new ones starting Thursday.
Here are the three new channels, which all are clearly aimed at a younger audience.
Venus in the Pop: upbeat pop and R&B from the 2000s through today, which means Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and the like. Given the name, I get the impression female artists will get plenty of love. This will be on Channel 3 and seems to be a brand new channel.
Y2Kountry: Sort of like Pop2K, except for country. This is country music from the 2000-2009 period including Keith Urban, Sugarland, the Dixie Chicks, Martina McBride and the like. It will be on Channel 57.This had previous been an Internet-only station.
Utopia: Dance hits from the 1990s and 2000s. This has been an on-line only station but now gets onto the main network. It features songs by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Fatboy Slim and Robyn. It will be on Channel 55.
Here are the three channels that are getting dumped off the main network.
- XM's "20 on 20." This used to be a pop channel exclusively on XM before the merger which focused on the top 20 songs as voted on by listeners. It leans toward new music, some of it relatively obscure compared to those heard on Hits 1. As Billboard noted, the station is more apt to playing potential future hits, such as recent breakout songs by KONGOS and Sam Smith. Unfortunately for fans, I don't think the station will live on, even on the Internet. Venus is its replacement.
- Sirius XM Pops. This classical station is a goner, bumped to the Internet only world, indicating a move by Sirius to cater to pop fans, not classical ones.
- Vivid Radio. This adult-only station will be off the system completely.
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Jenny McCarthy may have lost her "View" show but she is getting a weekly Sirius/XM show starting Wednesday July 16 at 6 p.m. Called "Dirty, Sexy, Funny," the show will be on SiriusXMStars and feature her no-holds-barred discussion of relationships and pop culture. She plans guests such as Perez Hilton and Chelsea Handler. More details here.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
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Skeptics have been wondering if satellite radio is going to die. For now, as long as the Web is not easily accessible in cars, Sirirus XM survives. Plus, it provides unique content (Howard Stern!) and commercial free options. And as this Motley Fool story notes, 60 million cars are enabled for satellite so there is room for frowth. The service has very low turnover and continues to gain subscribers. So for now, SiriusXM isn't going anywhere.
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