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Question about obscene content or cursing on the air.

Stations can also make their own standards up and above the legal limits. I am sure that one or two jocks in the history of radio were really fired for saying "booger" on the air.
 
Stations can also make their own standards up and above the legal limits. I am sure that one or two jocks in the history of radio were really fired for saying "booger" on the air.
Oh, God---for less than that. Way less. Whatever a GM decided he didn't like at any given moment was fair game. In the days before there were HR departments, you were completely at the mercy of the GM's whims. Maybe you'd get two weeks severance, maybe you wouldn't, but it was also easier to get hired. If you were any good, you'd probably be on the competition the next day. In fact, I know some guys who did their usual shift, got fired, went across the street and did a second show on the competition the same day.
 
How do you explain Neil Sedaka's "Bad Blood"?
Probably worth pointing out, though....Sedaka's was the first of these lyrics to attach the word "bitch" to a woman.

In 1971, the Rolling Stones' "Bitch" used the word in the phrase "It's a....", as in tough. In '72, in "Tumbling Dice", they sang the phrase "This low-down bitchin'", meaning complaining. in 1974, Elton sang the lyrics in the first person, "I'm a...".

In '75's "Bad Blood", Sedaka still held short of calling a woman that---saying instead "the bitch is in the smile, the lie is on the lips".

And both Hall & Oates ("Rich Girl" in '77) and Rod Stewart ("Ain't Love A..." in '79) reverted to the "It's a...", as in tough.

The fact that none of these songs were saying "You...." (I'm doing the elipses because I don't think anyone wants to see the word ten times in a post) to a woman is probably what made it less offensive.
 
Obscene contact and fast food! Gotta love this site!
Con-TENT. If we start in on obscene contact, this thread will be shut down in a heartbeat.

Reminds me of a Robert W. Morgan bit, his first day back at KHJ in 1972 after 14 months in Chicago. He's reading a live spot for Thrifty Drug and says "It's exciting! The new........what is this? Oh, TUSSY. Boy, one typo and this place is a Jack-In-The-Box!"
 
Always consider what your station vehicle's graphics look like with the doors open:

w4pabttb6nh71.jpg
 
Always consider what your station vehicle's graphics look like with the doors open:

w4pabttb6nh71.jpg
We need a thread dedicated to vehicular advertising fails like this one. Have they forgotten that doors move?
 
Have you ever heard of a station losing their license for obscene content or cursing on the air?
In the very early 60's, a rural station in South Carolina lost its license due to a consistently dirty morning show followed by lack of candor by the licensee about the content and his actions to control it.
 
We need a thread dedicated to vehicular advertising fails like this one. Have they forgotten that doors move?
If I had to bet, the station didn't even think of it, but the guy who applied the wrap to the van was laughing like crazy as he cashed the check.

Back around '79/'80, KFI put a billboard straight across Melrose from the KHJ studios. Deliberate provocation.

So, late at night, a couple of the KHJ guys went up on the roof of the building across the street with a knife and some glue, and...

kshitartwork (1).jpg
 
Well, back to the topic of this thread. I worked for a CHR in a major market station in the Northwest in circa 1988 and mentioned the word “sucks” and got a warning for it from the PD. Time has convinced me the GM probably heard it and the PD had no choice to not give me the warning!
 
Well, back to the topic of this thread. I worked for a CHR in a major market station in the Northwest in circa 1988 and mentioned the word “sucks” and got a warning for it from the PD. Time has convinced me the GM probably heard it and the PD had no choice to not give me the warning!
Well, 34 years ago “sucks” was half of a phrase that usually involved another word that would get you fired. Somehow it’s become a substitute for “stinks”, but that wasn’t always the case.

In ‘74 at KSLY in San Luis Obispo, running out of creative backsells for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” I went into an old man voice and said “Billy, don’t be a schmuck!” Landed me straight in a meeting with the PD and the owner/GM. I survived, but it wasn’t pleasant.

Today, on any CHR, I could probably get away with “Billy, Don’t Be A Dick”.
 
Oh, God---for less than that. Way less. Whatever a GM decided he didn't like at any given moment was fair game. In the days before there were HR departments, you were completely at the mercy of the GM's whims. Maybe you'd get two weeks severance, maybe you wouldn't, but it was also easier to get hired. If you were any good, you'd probably be on the competition the next day. In fact, I know some guys who did their usual shift, got fired, went across the street and did a second show on the competition the same day.
Not fired, but I had housewives bitching at me (and yes, that was intentional!) for saying "crotch" in a story about Michael Jackson! (GM wanted us to use those stupid Hollywood stories off of the wire!) And if anyone ever wonders why I am not a Michael Jackson fan? Well, now you know!
 
Probably worth pointing out, though....Sedaka's was the first of these lyrics to attach the word "bitch" to a woman.

In 1971, the Rolling Stones' "Bitch" used the word in the phrase "It's a....", as in tough. In '72, in "Tumbling Dice", they sang the phrase "This low-down bitchin'", meaning complaining. in 1974, Elton sang the lyrics in the first person, "I'm a...".

In '75's "Bad Blood", Sedaka still held short of calling a woman that---saying instead "the bitch is in the smile, the lie is on the lips".

And both Hall & Oates ("Rich Girl" in '77) and Rod Stewart ("Ain't Love A..." in '79) reverted to the "It's a...", as in tough.

The fact that none of these songs were saying "You...." (I'm doing the elipses because I don't think anyone wants to see the word ten times in a post) to a woman is probably what made it less offensive.
Mix 92.9 here in Nashville changed the "bitchin'" in Billy Joel's "Big Shot" to "cryin'." Don't know if they still do that, or if they even still play "Big Shot" anymore, but they did at one time.
 
Well, 34 years ago “sucks” was half of a phrase that usually involved another word that would get you fired. Somehow it’s become a substitute for “stinks”, but that wasn’t always the case.

In ‘74 at KSLY in San Luis Obispo, running out of creative backsells for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” I went into an old man voice and said “Billy, don’t be a schmuck!” Landed me straight in a meeting with the PD and the owner/GM. I survived, but it wasn’t pleasant.

Today, on any CHR, I could probably get away with “Billy, Don’t Be A Dick”.
One of Lenny Bruce's arrests was for using "schmuck" in a nightclub act. And I remember in a Sports Illustrated article from 1984, they blanked out the "sucks" part of a "Steinbrenner sucks" chant.
When you hear songs using "goddamn" like "Life In The Fast Lane" by the Eagles or "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger, rock stations usually leave it in intact while other formats beep it out. Is that pretty standard for the rest of the country? For that matter rock stations play the "(rhymes with maggot) in the earring and the makeup" verse of Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" while other formats play the shortened version without the verse.
 
When you hear songs using "goddamn" like "Life In The Fast Lane" by the Eagles or "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger, rock stations usually leave it in intact while other formats beep it out. Is that pretty standard for the rest of the country? For that matter rock stations play the "(rhymes with maggot) in the earring and the makeup" verse of Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" while other formats play the shortened version without the verse.
I have heard that one, every which way but Sunday. Most classic hits stations do indeed omit the second verse. (This is what I understand to be the "short edit" on the single. I have the "long edit" 45, which leaves the second verse intact. Most of what is cut out (from the album version) is Sting's repeated "I want my MTV" lines over and over.)

The classic rockers tend to leave the second verse intact, but they remove the word "******" from those lines.
 
Concderning the GD issue, I've heard it done on radio and TV both where God will be bleeped but not damn. That always seemed like they had it backwards.
Damn is considered mild swearing. GD is considered blasphemy. Yeah, you could cure that by bleeping “damn”, but then it’s a phrase that no one uses (“haven’t seen a God—-thing” as opposed to one that people do use (“haven’t seen a damn thing”.)
 
Well, 34 years ago “sucks” was half of a phrase that usually involved another word that would get you fired. Somehow it’s become a substitute for “stinks”, but that wasn’t always the case.

In ‘74 at KSLY in San Luis Obispo, running out of creative backsells for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” I went into an old man voice and said “Billy, don’t be a schmuck!” Landed me straight in a meeting with the PD and the owner/GM. I survived, but it wasn’t pleasant.

Today, on any CHR, I could probably get away with “Billy, Don’t Be A Dick”.
I would tend to disagree. The term “sucks” singular was common in the 80’s. My point was my much older manager didn’t get that. Terms change over the years.
 
Well, back to the topic of this thread. I worked for a CHR in a major market station in the Northwest in circa 1988 and mentioned the word “sucks” and got a warning for it from the PD. Time has convinced me the GM probably heard it and the PD had no choice to not give me the warning!
I first heard it on a station that would have targeted young people around 1983.
 
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