Post #106589 by cybertiki on Thu, Aug 5, 2004 7:44 PM

I spoke with Lee Abrams, XM's Senior VP and Chief Programming Officer and he said that OTR was cancelled after polling "over 200,000 subscribers", and that there was very little interest in the station. He also indicated that the decision to eliminate OTR was taken after "much consideration"

I was not in nice mode.

I pointed out that I felt XM had deliberately permitted the quality of programming on OTR to go downhill because they did not have a program director who understood the genre. I indicated that there were plenty of talented individuals who were actively working to keep the genre alive and fresh - and some who were making a living doing so. I indicated that rather than find someone who was up to the task of making OTR the fresh and innovative program that it had been upon its inception that XM chose to neglect it and then kill it off. I suggested that he listent to Vegas Vic's Tiki Lounge on Live365 to get an idea of what I was talking about. I said some other things, that in retrospect are probably regrettable, but the bottom line is that I don't think the decision to cancel OTR is likely to be rescinded.

Now, on the upside, the O&A mailing list has just informed me that Opie and Anthony will shortly be joining the XM lineup with their own peculiar brand of humor ... I actually like O&A, but if it's a tradeoff between O&A style programming and decent music programming, my cancellation of the XM service stands.

Just thought I'd post the followup for anyone who's interested. I think more people should be calling XM Radio directly and asking to speak with Lee Abrams. Who knows, maybe there's a job up there as a program director for someone who actually understands the Exotica/Lounge/Bachelor Pad genre of music.

Cheers!