It has often been suggested that a lot more celebrities would sue supermarket tabloids for invasion of privacy and/or defamation, except that they don’t want to go through the trauma and humiliation of having stories they find objectionable repeated, and they figure that a lot of the public will only half-listen to news about the trial and get the wrong idea that the stories were true.
I suspect that such concerns keep a good many victims of radio pranks from seeking redress as well. Really: would you like it on the news that you are suing because a disc jockey tricked you into discussing your sex habits on the air?
I recall years ago–in the early 80s, maybe–hearing a disc jockey say that radio pranks used to be more common but that government regulators had cracked down on abuses. There has been a considerable resurgence in such pranks since, and I suspect this reflects the disinterest of the FCC in maintaining standards.
Maybe five years back I was listening to an on-air Christmas Party held by a local public broadcaster. This was a small, “alternative” operation, not an NPR-type station. One of their on-air personalities started talking about how she got her husband into the Christmas spirit by singing carols up the shaft of his erect penis.
While I am generally not figured to be a prude, I thought this kind of went beyond the pale as: (1) this broadcast was on weekend afternoon (2) there had been nothing in the previous hour to suggest the show would not be entirely suitable for children (3) this broadcast was actually a repeat of a show from a previous year, so they had plenty of opportunity to delete this material.
I wrote a letter to the FCC expressing my concerns. More than a year later I received a form letter saying the FCC could take no action as it only regulated obscenity.
The state of radio broadcasting really has gotten pretty disgusting. For years now I’ve listened to virtually nothing but all-news stations and public radio (and there’s one public radio station I now avoid).
Maybe ten years back a local television news personality in St. Louis–who was married, and living with his wife-- was trying to reconcile with an ex-girlfriend. She recorded a phone message he left her in which it was apparent he was crying. Two local “shock jocks” played the recording on-air, laughing and making jokes at the man’s expense. Later that day he took off in his private plane from a local airport, then did a nosedive directly into the runway, killing himself.
Another time they made some misstatements about Affirmative Action on air, and a black woman called up and politely attempted to correct them. They hung up on her after calling her a “nigger” on air. It was a rare moment of unity in the St. Louis community as blacks and whites, religious people and nonreligious, joined in complaining about their conduct.
The guys are still on the air. They seem to get a lot less criticism now. This may be partly due to declining ratings, and partly due to the fact that one of them, though he has not significantly changed his on-air style, is now very vocal about how he is a Born-Again Christian.
It is nice to know that such broadcasters do occasionally still get their share of trouble. About ten years back a drunk driver tried placing an order at a fast food drive-through in south St. Louis. The restaurant was next door to a police station, and he was arrested when he pulled into the wrong driveway and tried placing his order in a police intercom.
It was a funny story, but some local disc jockeys couldn’t be content with merely reporting it. Instead, they sent one of their crew to the police station to place a breakfast order over the intercom. It turned out he had an outstanding warrant against him, and he was arrested on-air.