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February 14, 2005
what is indecent, anyway?
these days, college radio dj's and administrators are often left scratching their heads over just where to draw the line between material that is indecent and material that isn't.
actually, the real issue is determining which material might be likely to inspire a listener to complain to the FCC. once a complaint reaches the FCC, the station is probably pretty much screwed regardless of whether the FCC decides the complaint is valid or not.
at the college radio station where i work, we're supposed to give a warning before each indecent song we play (and we can only play them during safe harbor hours-- late at night).
once, sarah did an all-indecent show, and she diligently gave a warning before each and every song. it was pretty amusing.
i was thinking it would be both amusing and a sort of commentary on the current situation if we were to give an indecency warning before every song we play, for a period of say about a week. or even a day.
the warnings usually go like this: "The following song may be considered indecent by some listeners." but for this little project, perhaps it should be more like, "The following song may be considered indecent by some listeners. It may not be considered indecent by other listeners-- or by anyone at all. We're not sure anymore."
Posted by lisa at February 14, 2005 03:27 PM | TrackBack
Comments
EXCELLENT!!!
Posted by: christa on February 14, 2005 04:02 PM
that was a fun show. I felt like an idiot after a half hour, but by the end I was used to saying the indecency warning over and over. My next daytime show was three days later and I almost did the warning again out of habit!
Posted by: Sarah on February 14, 2005 04:11 PM
i was thinking about how the urban dj's habitually fail to give warnings (or did back in the day-- perhaps the current urban staff is more responsible), because they felt it would sound ridiculous if they gave a warning before every indecent track.
they were right-- it WOULD sound ridiculous. the whole situation is totally ridiculous, actually. i think the fact that it has gotten so out of control just points to the fact that having indecency laws are a bad idea in the first place.
Posted by: lisa on February 14, 2005 04:19 PM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.