XM Service Restored, Listeners Still Peeved

It's been a rough couple of weeks for XM Radio. First, the satellite radio service got hit with a barrage of criticism—and cancellations—after XM execs suspended shock jocks Opie and Anthony, who had made some off-color comments (no, really?) about the First Lady, Condoleezza Rice and Queen Elizabeth II. Then on Monday, many of XM's eight million subscribers lost service after a software failure on one of the service's four satellites. Sounds like it's time for a little damage control.

XM customers first reported service outages starting around noon Monday, and as the disruption grew (the first substantial service outage for XM since its 2001 launch, according to the Associated Press), subscribers complained bitterly about the lack of updates from XM management. The company finally issued an apology yesterday, explaining that a software glitch in one of the company's four satellites was the culprit. Service was more or less restored by Tuesday night.

Gearlog's Brian Heater scored an interview with XM spokesman Chance Patterson, who explained that resetting the satellite's on-board systems took much longer than anticipated. "One thing lead to another, and here it was, 11:45 AM today before it was reset," Patterson explained. "So there were several communications that went out, some of them by e-mail blast, some of them through the Web site, some of them on-air."

Meanwhile, XM execs are still under fire for the decision to bench "The Opie & Anthony Show." The Los Angeles Times reports that hundreds of furious callers lit up XM's switchboard in the wake of the decision, which many viewed as a wild overreaction to the recent Don Imus scandal.

All this comes at a particularly bad time for XM, which is hoping for approval from the FCC to merge with its main (and only) rival, Sirius. Back in February, my fellow Tech Advisor Robin Raskin wrote that the merger threatened to turn the once cutting-edge satellite radio services into a single, "vanilla-flavored" monster, and based on what's happening with Opie & Anthony, it looks like she may be proved right.

Did any of you XM Radio subscribers lose service yesterday? And if so, are you sticking with XM, or are you ready to cancel?

Related:
XM restores radio service after glitch [AP, via Yahoo! News]
Listeners shocked by XM hosts' suspension [LA Times.com]