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NPR: North Carolina radio station plans to reject broadcasts of 'inappropriate' Met operas

Smuggled? I take it that relations between Colombia and Ecuador weren't exactly friendly at the time?
Nothing to do with relations. Ecuador tried to protect its small record industry with huge taxes. But the only things produced locally were indigenous music, and some pop and contemporary. No classical, so had to smuggle it in.

in Quito there was a whole street filled with market style booths selling things from Colombia, like cookies, fabrics, records and the like.
 
This example may have been a classical station, but owners have always decided which songs to play not to play. In 1981, at the first FM/AM I worked at Olivia Newton-John's Physical was not aired because the owner thought it in bad taste. Unlike today, no one wigged out and called it censorship or anything even remotely like that. People today really need to lighten up and stop looking for things to be offended about that don't even affect them.
 
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This example may have been a classical station, but owners have always decided which songs to play not to play. In 1981, at the first FM/AM I worked at Olivia Newton-John's Physical was not aired because the owner thought it in bad taste. Unlike today, no one wigged out and called it censorship or anything even remotely like that. People today really need to lighten up and stop looking for things to be offended about that don't even affect them.
In case you missed it, the station has reversed the original decision. They will now air the performances they said they wouldn't. Station management brought this on themselves. If they had not caved in to a few zealots who complained, nobody would know about this. Nobody "wigged" out. They simply questioned a stupid move to ban shows for no reason...
 
I think I know why WCPE-89.7 reconsidered.

I thought stations carrying the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts have to carry every one of the 27 weekly opera broadcasts (every Saturday afternoon from December 9th, 2023 through June 8th, 2024, and also have to carry every opera broadcast live (no tape-delayed broadcasts allowed).

The Met may have informed WCPE that if they didn't carry the six operas in question, they wouldn't be able to carry any of the opera broadcasts.

There are, however, several cities where, at this writing (October 9th), no local radio station is planning to carry the opera broadcasts. According to the Met's website (Station Finder), as of now, the broadcasts won't be heard on any local station in these large to major markets: Phoenix, San Diego, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Tulsa, Providence, Nashville, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Seattle, or Milwaukee.

Although no local station on the U.S. side of the Detroit market is currently scheduled to carry this year's opera broadcasts, CBE-89.9 across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario (part of the CBC Music radio network) will carry the broadcasts, making them available to Metropolitan Detroit (maybe that might be why no station on the U.S. side of the river will carry the operas).

As the first broadcast of the season is two months away as I write this, it's possible that stations in some of the cities listed above may pick up the opera broadcasts. But many of these cities likely won't get this season's broadcasts.

Personally, I wonder if in future years, the number of stations carrying these broadcasts will continue to shrink, listeners in more cities won't be able to hear these operas, and at some point in the future, the Metropolitan Opera may have to decide whether it would be worth it to continue feeding Saturday afternoon performances between early December and early June to terrestrial radio.
 
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The Met may have informed WCPE that if they didn't carry the six operas in question, they wouldn't be able to carry any of the opera broadcasts.

This was posted earlier in this thread.

You don't carry The Met for free on your station. You pay for this and I understand it's not cheap. When you pay you get certain rights and one of those would be to preempt what you might not choose to air. An angle taken is 'indecent' words can be aired if they are 'art' but I certainly would not want to go there because you know if you don't edit you will pay for it after the FCC letter and fight to win your side is played out, assuming you do.
 
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