You Can’t Say That On The Radio

George Carlin once said, “There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can’t say on radio.” Oh, if it was only that simple. While those infamous seven are no doubt included, the land of forbidden radio topics is a nebulous one, somehow controlled by the federal government, the community at large and the DJs who make up the radio station in question. Recently, the government part of this three-way tug of war has tightened its grip, causing our own WQFS-Greensboro to reconsider its standards and policies.The Federal Communications Commission (FFC), which regulates all broadcast media, divides speech into three categories: safe, obscene, and indecent. Obscenity, of any sort, is prohibited. According to The FFC’s website, (www.fcc.gov) the FCC finds obscenity by subjecting it to a three-part test: “(1) an average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (2) the material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and (3) the material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Indecency isn’t prohibited, only restricted. The FCC website defines indecency as “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.” Since you can be indecent on the radio and still be protected by our Constitution, the FCC only prohibits broadcasting indecent material from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., in order “to avoid its broadcast during times of day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience.”The wording here is purposely vague (“average person,” “contemporary community standards,” “reasonable risk”) presumably in order to allow minimum curtailing of the First Amendment. But these ambiguous standards also make it easy for the FCC to slap a radio station with a fine. For example, in July, the FCC fined commercial station KKMG-Colorado Springs $7000 for playing an edited version of the Eminem song “The Real Slim Shady.” The track was said to contain, even in its edited state, “unmistakable offensive sexual references…that appear to be intended to pander and shock.” The FCC went into action after just one listener complaint.While WQFS has yet to be fined for giving Eminem airtime, station manager Michela Maxwell is approaching this new semester of broadcasting with caution. With the station’s license coming up for renewal next January, the last thing she wants is a list of expensive obscenity fines when the FCC reviews the station. So Maxwell is taking steps to make sure WQFS won’t go down in flames because an FCC worker had a bad day. She has temporarily suspended the station’s safe-harbor hours (when you can broadcast indecent material). This has caused a lot of resentment among the DJs, who enjoyed the freedom inherent in the safe-harbor hours.“On-air editing” is now prohibited. “On-air editing” was an attempt to get around the FCC’s indecent prohibitions. The DJ turns off the CD connection during obscene material while the track is playing. The effect is a moment of silence where a swear word would be. This “blanking out” of song is now not allowed because it is unreliable. ”I’m also going to get together with a group of people as diverse as possible to decide what we as a community should and what we shouldn’t say,” said Maxwell.These new measures are intended not to tie the DJ’s hands but to arm them against the FCC’s bold new attacks. The safe-harbor hours will be re-instated after the community meeting provides indecency guidelines. The station’s production room, which Maxwell says will be operational by the end of the year, will allow DJs to edit their tracks ahead of time and provide an alternative to on-air editing.“People need to understand that we’re not trying to censor them, just not lose our license,” said Maxwell. “[Being on the radio] is not about trying to see what you can get away with. It’s about being responsible.”