SiriusXM’s Opie Radio Channel officially relaunches, Jim Norton now on mornings, Opie afternoons

Update [1.23.17] This channel has gone through another rebranding as Faction Talk.

It’s been over a week of some pretty hefty radio drama over at SiriusXM’s Opie Radio Channel. A channel that will no longer have its namesake in the morning radio position for the first time since the channel’s debut over a decade ago and it was just XM satellite radio. The channel however, will still be chock full of names you know and love, just in different orders. Jim Norton, whose relationship with Opie has soured over time will be doing mornings on the channel with Sam Roberts, the former producer of Opie & Anthony/Opie with Jimmy turned late night show host on the channel. A timeslot where Norton expressed the most desire to maintain because it worked best with his non-radio life as a comedian. This morning, the Jim Norton & Sam Roberts show was launched and will air mornings from 8-11am ET and re-broadcast 11-2pm and 9pm-midnight.

Gregg “Opie” Hughes, again citing tension between him and Norton, was more interested in doing his show in the afternoons. So he’s been granted his own afternoon shift, which, for those that remember he hasn’t done since his days on WNEW terrestrial radio in New York. The Opie Radio Show will air from 3-6pm ET, replay 6-9 then again in the early morning 5-8am. So, weirdly, if you’re making your commute in the morning, you will still hear Opie on in the mornings.

Still up in the air are the specialty shows that the channel aired at off times. If you look at the channel’s lineup, you will still see some shows like Bennington on Opie Radio, Weird Medicine, and Best Of’s. There’s also slots for “specialty shows” at 3am which are described as “unique programming from comedians, celebrities, and more.” This is where its assumed shows/podcasts that have previously populated the channel like Race Wars, Robert Kelly, and Rich Vos & Bonnie McFarlane will live.

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