(I do a bimonthly show on our local community radio station called Spaceship of Fools; it’s your basic mix of new indie rock and whatever else I feel like playing. This call came in about three songs into tonight’s edition.)
Me: Spaceship of Fools!
Caller: Hello. I just wanted to say that I just heard the “F” word.
Me: Well, sir, I really don’t think you did.
Caller: Yeah, it was there.
Me: Sir, I check the lyrics of every song I play, and I know the three I’ve played so far very well, so I don’t know what you think you heard, but it wasn’t the “F” word.
Caller: What’s this song called?
Me: “Think About It” by Flight of the Conchords.
Caller: I’m going to look it up, and then I’ll call you back.
Me*: While you’re at it, you might want to google this: fuck fuck fizzuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
In my head. In reality, he slammed the phone down.
Jesus, save me from your followers. I’ve never wanted to bust out the Dr. Dre so badly in my life.
You should get your show to start after 10 PM (or is it 11 PM?) and then you can play all the fucks you want.
Two of my best friends in college had radio shows late at night, and one of them would always start the night off with some song that had profanity, just because we could.
Hey, I had a very little part of your station getting on the air. Back in the 80’s I worked for an organization called the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), and we help you folks through your FCC licensing. I dunno if you folks are still members or not, as I left in about '86, just as WMMT was going live.
The FCC used to let stations get away with a “safe harbor” after a certain time of day, but not anymore. Not that they’ve made anything explicit, mind you; as always, the only way to find out where the lines are is to cross them.
I feel bad for the folks who do the hip-hop show on Monday nights–a lot of their tracks are more “bleep” than song. They played “Get Low” last week and it took me quite a while to figure out what it was.
It’s a weak pitting. I just can’t work up much steam over a guy who calls a station because a little profanity might have slipped through. It makes me more sad than angry.
Of course, the station does have political enemies. We’re associated with Appalshop, an art and cultural center that attracts eastern Kentucky’s more hippiefied elements. The news and commentary shows on the station are one of the only places where you’ll find voices critical of the coal industry, so naturally, the station gets painted with that brush. It’s not unreasonable to think that someone could be at home just waiting for someone to slip something through so they can sic the FCC on us to fine us into oblivion.
I still think this was just a random loser, though.
So what IS the situation with swearing on US airwaves?
In my part of the world, you can use progressively stronger language as the night wears on. I’m not sure if you could just broadcast an hour of somebody saying “fuck fuckitty fucken fucksticks by fuck”, but you can let fly with the word hear and there. “Cunt” even makes a rare appearance. Inadvertent use of the word “shit” during the daytime is usually left alone.
On reflection, maybe that’s more TV - but I do hear mild stuff on the radio.
Sorry to say that I can’t listen to you because in Firefox, the choices being between RealPlayer and “Other”, when I told it to use “other” player, meaning WMP, it started giving me a popup every time, warning me that my chosen player was not installed properly, did I want to reinstall it, and won’t let me go back and select RealPlayer after all, and when I tried it in Internet Explorer, it lets me select WMP, but it keeps going back to ask me if I wouldn’t rather install Live 365 for my listening experience.
DoctorJ already answered that, but he’s looking at the classic conundrum of content on the radio, and that is what is more-or-less legal versus the self-appointed censors who are too happy to complain to the Federal Communications Commission, who is in charge of enforcing standards.
In a lot of ways, it’s like swatting mosquitoes. They’re easy to kill, but too often, you don’t know they’re there until you’ve been bitten.
But … he should tell the guy to go ahead and call the FCC, and give them the number - he keeps a play list, and the show is recorded. All the FCC would do is look at the play list, and if anything on it has the f word, listen to the song to see if it is bleeped. See, the fucktards who are self appointed asshats want you to get upset with them, I guess it gives them the warm fuzzies or something. I temped in an office building as a general lobby receptionist, and apparently somone in the building was an OBGYN, so I would get these confrontational asshats who wanted to argue with me … and being amazingly polite and helpful drove them nuts.
So he could have been a Jewish or Muslim or atheist listener who just doesn’t want to hear profanity on the radio or has some grudge against your station, or even a fan who just wanted to help by giving you a chance to CYA just in case? Admit it. You were lonely and drunk last night, and wanted some company.
