The Opie & Anthony Channel

The Opie & Anthony Channel
Broadcast area	United States Canada
Branding	xL The Opie & Anthony Channel
Slogan	N/A
Frequency	XM105 SR 206
First air date	August 6, 2004 as High Voltage November 20, 2006 as The Virus October 13, 2011 as The Opie & Anthony Channel
Format	Talk radio
Class	Satellite Radio Station
Owner	Sirius XM Radio
Website	www.siriusxm.com/theopie&anthonychannel

The Opie & Anthony Channel (formerly known as High Voltage from 2004 to 2006, then as the ViRUS from 2006 to 2011) is a hot talk channel on XM Satellite Radio. It is one of only two talk-based XM channels in stereo, the other being XM Public Radio as well as Sirius channels Howard 100 and Howard 101.

It is one of XM Satellite Radio's 9 xL channels, which include frequent explicit language. The Opie & Anthony Channel is XM's only talk channel that has the xL tag, the others being either music or comedy channels.

1 History
2 Weekend programs
- 2.1 Saturday Night Virus
- 2.2 Former programs
3 Programming lineup
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

History

High Voltage (2004-2006)

Launch

The launch of the channel came the day after XM's 2004-08-05 announcement that they were hiring former Infinity Broadcasting talk radio personalities Opie and Anthony to be part of a subscription-only channel on XM.^[1] For two months, High Voltage repeatedly looped two different, 40-second announcements with no background music touting Opie and Anthony's return. At midnight ET on 2004-10-01, the loop was interrupted to air "Opie and Anthony: Ungagged".

The original channel name High Voltage was decided by one of XM's lawyers, despite them telling Opie and Anthony they had time to think of a name. The decision was made without consulting Opie or Anthony when XM decided to put out a press release that afternoon.

Opie and Anthony premiered on 2004-10-04 where their show ran from 6-10 AM ET, with replays throughout the day, and blocks of music at night which usually consisted of an active rock playlist. Due to technical restrictions on XM's master computer in Washington, D.C., no previously recorded show on XM is able to run past 12 AM ET. This was the main reason why High Voltage had to have "variety hours" and Worst of O&As airing at night time, due to the replays either ending at 10 PM or 11 PM ET. Up until early Spring 2005, the channel would run stand-up comedy bits during the commercial breaks. In the show's early days on XM, most of these bits were from George Carlin. Carlin's spots were so frequent it caused listener complaints. In March 2005, they moved their start and end time back an hour, beginning to air from 7-11 AM ET each weekday. This was done to encourage more west coast participation.

The end of the premium channel

Originally launched as a premium subscription channel, XM abandoned the premium charge in April 2005, making High Voltage a standard part of the XM platform. High Voltage became available to all XM subscribers, as did XM Radio Online. In exchange, XM increased the monthly rates of its subscribers. However, they offered a pre-payment plan beforehand that allowed subscribers to pay the same rate for a long-term period.

Ron and Fez arrive

For nearly eleven months, O&A were the only program on the channel. After their original show had ended, the replay of the show from that day would begin immediately after. On 2005-08-01, XM announced that they had signed talk-show hosts Ron and Fez, who worked with O&A at WNEW-FM years prior and were long-mentioned on the Opie and Anthony Show as O&A's best friends in radio.^[2] On September 12, 2005, Ron and Fez began airing on channel 202 from Noon-3pm every weekday, beginning immediately after O&A end their program. Now, Ron and Fez air on XM channel 105, Sirius 206 from 11am-3pm EST.

Since November 2005, The Virus has been a part of the DirecTV Total Choice Plus package on channel 879. XM has rated the channel TV-MA L for DirecTV listings. However, shortly after Opie and Anthony returned to FM radio, DirecTV decided to remove the channel from their service, claiming they wanted to go "all music." Thanks to a series of listener complaints, DirecTV restored High Voltage to its lineup. However, as of Wednesday, November 12, 2008, The Virus has been removed by XM from DirecTV.

In honor of Jim Norton's birthday, on July 19, 2006, the channel was renamed xL Jimmy Day, and on the new line of XM2Go's that include color displays, Jim Norton's face was put on the display.

the ViRUS (2006-2011)

High Voltage was rebranded as the ViRUS on 2006-11-20 and remained on channel 202. The name is derived from the Opie and Anthony slogan 'Spread the Virus,' a reference to Viral Marketing. The launch featured a new channel logo as well as exposure on packaging of XM Radio products. In addition, some extra spots on the weekend were dedicated to new weekly shows, such as the Razzle Dazzle Variety Hour, and the Saturday Night Virus.^[3] The latter is a weekly rotating slot featuring comedians and friends of the show. Weekend programs were not restricted to Saturday nights though, as The Cosmic Circus aired during a Ron and Fez weekend afternoon replay. Sometimes the Saturday Night Virus includes a second show, running it to 3:00 in the morning. On October 13, 2011 it was announced that the channel was renamed the Opie & Anthony channel.

Opie and Anthony suspension

In May 2007, an Opie and Anthony audio byte appeared on the website Breitbart.tv, which had a clip of their show featuring a homeless man talking about how he would sexually abuse Condoleezza Rice, and the Queen of the United Kingdom. This clip soon made its way to the Drudge Report, and gained a lot of attention through news media outlets, as this was following the firings of CBS Radio peers Don Imus, and JV & Elvis. Opie and Anthony were not allowed to discuss the situation on the air, and continued their show. On May 15, 2007, Opie and Anthony were suspended for 30 days for comments made on the previous days broadcast.^[4] The show could no longer be heard on XM, but it was still heard on the terrestrial outlets. The Virus turned into Ron and Fez every hour, every day, and the weekend programs were also suspended. The fans of the show were angered by this decision, and were calling XM to complain or cancel their subscriptions. Weeks later, XM began hyping up Opie and Anthony's return, and even abandoned the embargo on the show to run worst-of CBS show blocks four days before the live show returned. The show returned on time as promised, on 2007-06-15 As of 12 November 2008 The Virus was off Directv channel 879 where it had been carried 24/7.

On 2007-09-23, the ViRUS added Unmasked to the weekend lineup. The show is hosted by Ron Bennington of Ron and Fez, as he interviews a comedian in front of an audience of their fans. The show runs every other Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, which will be an encore of the show's real premiere on XM Comedy Saturdays. Following the Sirius / XM merger, the ViRUS was added to Sirius on 2008-09-30 as part of its "Best of XM" package and broadcasts on channel 206. On 2008-11-12, the ViRUS was removed from the DirecTV lineup.