This past week, XM radio suspended Opie and Anthony - their online shock jocks - for comments made on their program about Condoleeza Rice. After this move, fans of Opie & Anthony (of which I am not one) decided to make a statement and began cancelling their accounts in droves. The idea was to send a message to XM Radio that the whole reason they bought into satellite radio, which is independent of most FCC regulation, was to have a radio show with more creative freedom. OK, fine. Statement made and move on, right? Well, maybe not. XM protesters are finding, upon reviewing their account statuses, that in fact XM is either suspending the account (i.e. leaving radios active but holding up billing) or giving them credit for the accounts to cover the months that Opie and Anthony will be off the air, but leaving the accounts entirely active.
From listening to the second link above, it appears to me that this may not be sinister but merely an incompetent off-shore call center staff. However, the last time a company did things like this - AOL - it lead to a huge media firestorm and a major red face for the company. To present, XM executives appear oblivious to the issue, and since it is now the weekend it is unlikely any action will be taken until Monday. But by Monday, you can be assured some major media outlet will have picked this up and will run it as a major story. This will lead to an XM Radio stock selloff, and likely a major loss in value.
Be watching. I doubt XM is done shooting themselves in the foot quite yet.
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