Lewd Radio

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sen Fritz Hollings want to expand anti-obscenity laws to fine and revoke the broadcast licenses of radio stations broadcasting lewd programs. I don't see how they can enforce this without defining lewd in great detail. This law could become a best seller in the adult section of Borders Books. can you define lewd radio?

[elSicomoro]

The targeted station is owned by Infinity Broadcasting, CBS's radio wing. The same folks that bring us Howard Stern and Don & Mike. (They also brought us Opie & Anthony, until they were fired last year for their stunt in New York's St. Peter's Cathedral.)

The way to handle situations like this is simple--if you don't like the station, turn the dial. The FCC is wasteful bureaucracy at its finest already.

[SteveDallas]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
can you define lewd radio?

"No, but I know it when I hear it!" I'm guessing it would include giving away vibrators to female listeners (who would then express their gratitude by making use of the gift on the air), or running a game wherein contestants try to guess the last time their parents had sex, and the host calls up the parents to see how close the guess was. (These were both featured on shows on the "XM Extreme" channel on XM satellite radio but originated on FM stations owned by Clear Channel. That channel 's basically "morning shock jock shows all day." And yes, sad to say, I listen sometimes when nothing else strikes my fancy. Honest, I subscribed to it for the classical music channels, but sometimes you don't feel like listening to Bach after a long day at the office.)

Originally posted by sycamore
The same folks that bring us Howard Stern and Don & Mike. (They also brought us Opie & Anthony, until they were fired last year for their stunt in New York's St. Peter's Cathedral.)

Whatever happened to Opie & Anthony? I assumed they'd get handed their walking papers, maybe pay a fine, hang out in radio purgatory for a couple months, and be hired back by some eager-for-ratings station.

I miss Kent Voss, who used to have the afternoon drive-time show on WWDB before they changed formats. For me, his show was the perfect balance between not being too serious and not being completely inane and idiotic.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And yes, sad to say, I listen sometimes when nothing else strikes my fancy.

Well sometimes these adult/R rated situations they set up are damn funny...and sometimes they're just crude. It seems to be a matter of the way the jock handles it more than the situation they set up. Everybody I know loves Howard Stern but I think he sucks. I have heard some of the people that have worked with him, be very funny at times. What it boils down to is

The way to handle situations like this is simple--if you don't like the station, turn the dial.

[tw]

The way to handle situations like this is simple--if you don't like the station, turn the dial.

But right wing extremists have declared it is their duty to protect us from ourselves. How dare we be trusted to turn the dial.

Same as was true of a new television show where two girls lived with a guy. Religious right television viewers swamped the network with letters complaining about how evil that premier episode was. Problem was that ABC aired the premier episode of "Three's Company" two weeks after those letters were written. How dare ABC pervert your morals before they even do so!

In the meantime, wasn't Fritz Hollings caught cheating on his wife some years back? Why do moralists have so many double standards?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Why do moralists have so many double standards?

Diversion. If he keeps waving his right hand in the air you might not notice he's jerking off with the left.

[tw]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
Diversion. If he keeps waving his right hand in the air you might not notice he's jerking off with the left.

M words. Moralist. Magician. Master.....

[vsp]

Originally posted by SteveDallas
Whatever happened to Opie & Anthony? I assumed they'd get handed their walking papers, maybe pay a fine, hang out in radio purgatory for a couple months, and be hired back by some eager-for-ratings station.

As far as I know, O&A themselves are still under contract with Infinity Broadcasting, which prevents them from shopping themselves to other stations or broadcasters. The rest of the O&A crew (Jim Norton, producers, etc.) are now off the payroll.

Infinity is still under the FCC's microscope over the Sex For Sam III/St. Patrick's Cathedral incident, which carried the potential for the revocation of WNEW-FM's license; in the aftermath, the WHOLE STATION ended up changing its format to Adult Contemptuous^H^H^H^H^Horary. Of course, Infinity is no stranger to the wrath of the FCC -- Howard Stern's broadcasts have led to stunning FCC-imposed fines, and the "Deminski & Doyle" show in Detroit recently received a $27,500 fine of its own and suggestions that THEIR station should have its licence revoked.

As a result, Infinity seems content to simply sit on their O&A assets, rather than (a) put them back on the air and witness the media firestorm to follow, or (b) buy them out, only for someone else to bring them in to take daily potshots at Infinity over the airwaves.

It's not just the right wing that wants to censor America. Fritz "I work for Disney" Hollings is a Democrat, and his wife was one of the PMRC creatures. Al and Tipper Gore built their public image around "protect the children from this FILTH" rhetoric in the 80's, including the infamous PMRC, "porn rock" Senate hearings, and Tipper's multiple books on the subject. They toned their output down a bit when Al prepared to run for the Presidency, only to select a running mate (Joe Lieberman) who'd picked up the return-America-to-the-1950's banner and waved it as (or more) vigorously as Tipper used to wave it.

All of the above were Democrats, but described the evils of rock music in terms that would make Christian conservatives proud: they hired a ordained minister to write their literature and minister over their traveling dog-and-pony slide shows, counted Pat Robertson and his 700 Club among their supporters, had Tipper's book published and distributed by evangelical organizations and booksellers, called for the firings of artists that failed to abide by the PMRC's standards for "obscenity," declared "porn rock" responsible for a wide variety of society's perceived ills (including teen suicide, pregnancy, Satanism, and the dreaded Destruction of our Moral Fabric), and demanded a letter-grade rating system for music (including an "O" for "Occult" rating, which raised more than a few eyebrows).

I held my nose twice to vote for Bill Clinton in the 90's -- one of my primary concerns being that Tipper Gore would be in a prominent position to crank up her crusade once again, and (in the event of a Clinton vacancy) could end up as First Lady. When Lieberman was selected as the Veep nominee, putting Al, Tipper and Joe on the same ticket, _that moment_ was when I ruled out voting Democratic in the 2000 election. Lieberman's subsequent campaign rhetoric about "no freedom from religion" and "we are all products of the same awesome God" and such served only to reinforce my decision.

[Undertoad]

Thanks for posting all that -- I hadn't heard a lot of it. How annoying.