Still editing songs in 2024?

[Bongwater]

1. That song is from 2006.
2. It's not the "God" in the lyrics that is the issue, it is the fact that it is next to "damn," a combination that has frequently been edited out of both music and movies. Another example of a song with a "GD" edited out of its radio version:
"Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger

KNDD played "Flagpole Sitta" unedited in 1998.

One day during their Alternative rock phase in 1994, KUBE played the unedited version of "Man In The Box" Alice In Chains (complete with 2 S-bombs) in the 11:00 hour.....AM. Weekday morning, if I remember.

And the DECADES of AOR/Classic Rock radio when songs like "Jet Airliner" Steve Miller, "Who Are You" The Who and "Play Guitar" John Mellencamp could be played anytime without a blip.

But the 1990s were actually a very libertine time when fleeting language bombs on the radio, either from the music, occasionally the host or even on talk radio were really not that unusual. It was only after Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" (sure) at the 2004 Super Bowl that blew everything up. Strangely not so much for MTV, Janet Jackson or Justin Timberlake.

But the radio industry felt the full brunt of the backlash. And they had nothing to do with whatever Janet Jackson was wearing. Suddenly, language violations carried an insanely draconian penalty ($325,000) Serious talk shows about women's health had to be shelved until the lawyers could sort out what could be said and how to say it. As if the women listening were little girls.

I read somewhere there was going to be a very long overdue talk between the FCC and the radio industry about loosening up the language restrictions. The reason is how can radio compete with satellite/streaming if they have to play different versions of a song? If the radio can play it at all?

You can't tell artists what lyrics to write. And they can survive without terrestrial radio today if need be. So broadcast radio has no advantage here.

Besides. It can be more than proven that the only people making language complaints about a song played at 3:16am on terrestrial radio these days are nothing more than organized religious busybodies. The fact they still believe in book burning in the age of downloadable PDFs is a clue they have no idea what century we're in. And they're not the kind of people we should be allowing to dictate public policy in 2024.

If they're offended by what they hear on the radio, change the station! Vote with their dials! Do we have to draw them a picture?

Station managers, PDs/MDs and air staff, nor the FCC are there to be babysitters for grown-arse adults who know better.

Speaking of today's music; One of those most interesting songs today is "Tejano Blue" Cigarettes After Sex. You could easily mistake it for your average Soft AC ballad. The first verse has two barely mumbled F-bombs, the rest clean. But you wouldn't understand they were F-bombs unless you were listening very, very closely (or had the lyrics.) The song has been played unedited on several over the air Alternative stations. During daylight hours.

It pays to be subtle, I guess....

 

[TheBigA]

If they're offended by what they hear on the radio, change the station! Vote with their dials! Do we have to draw them a picture?

All of this was brought up during the Howard Stern case many years ago. There are lots of other radio stations in NYC. No one is forced to listen to this one station. But people use these laws to impose their will on others. We see this in the book banning going on in public schools. The laws are written in vague ways with no specificity about what language is offensive or obscene. That's why you can have examples where words in some songs are OK, but not in others. The broadcast obscenity rules allow any citizen to complain to the FCC for any reason. This is why Howard went to Sirius, where there are no FCC obscenity rules.

 

[Mark Roberts]

For what it's worth...San Francisco's KITS was playing the version of Radiohead's "Creep" that didn't say "very special" in 1993. In fact, the night that I was listening when Steve Masters played it, he followed up by riffing on the expression that "very" replaced, without actually saying the word. You know, the one that starts with the sixth letter of the alphabet. This was in the evening. Whenever KITS plays the tune now, it's the "very special" version.

 

[fordranger797]

KNDD played "Flagpole Sitta" unedited in 1998.

One day during their Alternative rock phase in 1994, KUBE played the unedited version of "Man In The Box" Alice In Chains (complete with 2 S-bombs) in the 11:00 hour.....AM. Weekday morning, if I remember.

And the DECADES of AOR/Classic Rock radio when songs like "Jet Airliner" Steve Miller, "Who Are You" The Who and "Play Guitar" John Mellencamp could be played anytime without a blip.

But the 1990s were actually a very libertine time when fleeting language bombs on the radio, either from the music, occasionally the host or even on talk radio were really not that unusual. It was only after Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" (sure) at the 2004 Super Bowl that blew everything up. Strangely not so much for MTV, Janet Jackson or Justin Timberlake.

But the radio industry felt the full brunt of the backlash. And they had nothing to do with whatever Janet Jackson was wearing. Suddenly, language violations carried an insanely draconian penalty ($325,000) Serious talk shows about women's health had to be shelved until the lawyers could sort out what could be said and how to say it. As if the women listening were little girls.

I read somewhere there was going to be a very long overdue talk between the FCC and the radio industry about loosening up the language restrictions. The reason is how can radio compete with satellite/streaming if they have to play different versions of a song? If the radio can play it at all?

You can't tell artists what lyrics to write. And they can survive without terrestrial radio today if need be. So broadcast radio has no advantage here.

Besides. It can be more than proven that the only people making language complaints about a song played at 3:16am on terrestrial radio these days are nothing more than organized religious busybodies. The fact they still believe in book burning in the age of downloadable PDFs is a clue they have no idea what century we're in. And they're not the kind of people we should be allowing to dictate public policy in 2024.

If they're offended by what they hear on the radio, change the station! Vote with their dials! Do we have to draw them a picture?

Station managers, PDs/MDs and air staff, nor the FCC are there to be babysitters for grown-arse adults who know better.

Speaking of today's music; One of those most interesting songs today is "Tejano Blue" Cigarettes After Sex. You could easily mistake it for your average Soft AC ballad. The first verse has two barely mumbled F-bombs, the rest clean. But you wouldn't understand they were F-bombs unless you were listening very, very closely (or had the lyrics.) The song has been played unedited on several over the air Alternative stations. During daylight hours.

It pays to be subtle, I guess....

There are many faults with the CRTC approach to radio in Canada, but their policies on indecency seem to be a lot more reasonable. Obviously, distasteful music full of inappropriate language won’t be played over the air, but songs like “Jet Airliner,” “Money,” or “Man in the Box” are played all of the time in their entirety.

Some stations opt for the radio edit, but many don’t. It seems like a classic hits station is more likely to air the edited version while a classic rock station will play the original. I once heard a morning host use the term “bullshit” multiple times during a segment. He’s still on the air today so I don’t think there was any pushback.

It’s worth noting that I’ve never seen an example of anyone trying to let the F-word slip by, so I guess that’s where the line is drawn.

All in all, that seems like a balanced approach. The FCC isn’t likely to change, but this is probably a good way to handle indecency.

 

[secondchoice]

Elton John had "the Bit*h is back". Steppenwolf recorded "The Pusher Man" BTW written buy Hoyt Axton who also wrote Joy To The World for Three Dog Night. Of course non of these are the 7 words.

96.1 Atlanta has some edited songs.

 

[OldYeller]

Just another 'thing' that terrestrial radio gets off in the weeds about. Maybe if the dirty words are left in, stations can attract more 30 and unders back to the FM dial (kidding).

Fix the real problems.

 

[radiofan2023]

Fleeting expletives are ok, according to the Supreme Court:

Supreme Court cops out, again, on "fleeting expletives"

Narrow ruling leaves broadcasters second-class citizens under First Amendment

arstechnica.com

 

[TheBigA]

Fleeting expletives are ok, according to the Supreme Court:

The court reserves the right to reverse itself, as it's done several times lately.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Just another 'thing' that terrestrial radio gets off in the weeds about. Maybe if the dirty words are left in, stations can attract more 30 and unders back to the FM dial (kidding).

It's been stated in other discussions on RD that this is a limiting factor that keeps radio stations from adopting hip-hop formats that could appear to younger listeners. Bleeps will take you only so far.

Fix the real problems.

Which are....?

 

[bobdavcav]

There are many faults with the CRTC approach to radio in Canada, but their policies on indecency seem to be a lot more reasonable. Obviously, distasteful music full of inappropriate language won’t be played over the air, but songs like “Jet Airliner,” “Money,” or “Man in the Box” are played all of the time in their entirety.

Some stations opt for the radio edit, but many don’t. It seems like a classic hits station is more likely to air the edited version while a classic rock station will play the original. I once heard a morning host use the term “bullshit” multiple times during a segment. He’s still on the air today so I don’t think there was any pushback.

It’s worth noting that I’ve never seen an example of anyone trying to let the F-word slip by, so I guess that’s where the line is drawn.

All in all, that seems like a balanced approach. The FCC isn’t likely to change, but this is probably a good way to handle indecency.

I heard This Afternoon by Nickelback on a Canadian station shortly after it came out and the only edit that station made was the last one when Chad Croger yells out "Last call you sons of bitches!" The other three edits usually heard in this country were played unedited.

 

[kevtronics]

The issue here is not the reaction of the FCC, but rather the reaction of conservative religious listeners in the Bible Belt. And when corporate-owned stations share the same music libraries, then the "safe for the South" version gets played nationwide.

Even just hinting about not believing in God was enough to get a song censored by Cumulus in 2010:

More Voices | Patheos

friendlyatheist.patheos.com

 

[bobdavcav]

I hadn't heard of that one. I don't fully buy the corporate argument either though, as that excludes a fairly large percentage of stations not owned by the big companies. Audacy, iHeart, Cumulus, Townsquare, and Alpha only control about 10% of radio in this country. The only other companies doing music in this market are Lotus and Hubbard. The Lotus music station was owned by Fisher for years, which at the time I referenced in my earlier post on this subject, didn't have any other radio. If I were to guess, Cincinnati is Hubbard's most conservative market, and in what little radio I've sampled out of that market, I haven't heard anything more conservative than the standard edits played on every other station.

 

[AuxRSS]

Hard to make that generalization when you can only name one station that made that edit. What we're talking about with this example is a family company vs. iHeart. Generally speaking, iHeart is the one that is least likely to edit songs for lyrics. My question to you is does that benefit them in the ratings?

The other question we need to ask is what responsibility should the artists or labels take in terms of promoting abuse or obscenity in a format that is heard by people under 18. Because it appears the answer is none.

I don't think I was generalizing, just describing a sample of two CHRs in the Seattle market with respect to one popular song. The family-run company runs the ridiculous expurgated version (whips is OK, chains isn't), iHeart runs the less ridiculous version. To answer your first question, I'd say iHeart benefited because Hits 106.1 beat Movin 92.5 in 6+. And the record label probably doesn't care because the bulk of the listening to that song occurs on streaming services, unedited.

The on-air presentation between Seattle's two CHR stations doesn't indicate a difference in audience sought. It's not like Hubbard seeks little kids to moms and iHeart doesn't. It's the same music, the same songs, the same target audience and the same advertisers. There s no obvious reason for KQMV using ultra-clean edits while 106.1 doesn't.

As a parenthetical, this situation is what killed KUBE as an urban-oriented CHR. The newest hip-hop songs were so unplayable on radio edit that iHeart made the bulk of their playlist throwbacks to the 2000s before deciding, well, this frequency is better off as a sports station.

 

[TheBigA]

To answer your first question, I'd say iHeart benefited because Hits 106.1 beat Movin 92.5 in 6+.

You think one song is the reason? Really?

And the record label probably doesn't care because the bulk of the listening to that song occurs on streaming services, unedited.

The record label doesn't care because they get credit for the spin either way. But that wasn't my question. My question was about responsibility. I guess it doesn't matter as long as it makes money.

As a parenthetical, this situation is what killed KUBE as an urban-oriented CHR.

The irony there being that iHeart owns both Hits and the former KUBE

 

[Deleted member 76036]

A few things:

1. Alt 103.7 in Dallas-Fort Worth has been playing both Panic! At The Disco - I Write Sins Not Tragedies and Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta unedited for quite some time now.

2. I heard Ginuwine - Pony recently and the word “horny” was edited. That was the first I’ve heard that song with that word edited out and it seemed kinda weird.

3. Does anybody remember when rock stations played Alice In Chains - Heaven Beside You unedited? They sing “f-cked up” 3 times in that song.

4. I also hear the n-word in hip hop/rap songs on 97.9 The Beat in Dallas-Fort Worth every now and then.

I think as long as it’s infrequent and the audience doesn’t care, why should we care?

 

[Kelly A]

Just another 'thing' that terrestrial radio gets off in the weeds about. Maybe if the dirty words are left in, stations can attract more 30 and unders back to the FM dial (kidding).

Fix the real problems.

Really? Okay, what are the "real" problems?

 

[boombox4]

The issue here is not the reaction of the FCC, but rather the reaction of conservative religious listeners in the Bible Belt. And when corporate-owned stations share the same music libraries, then the "safe for the South" version gets played nationwide.

Even just hinting about not believing in God was enough to get a song censored by Cumulus in 2010:

More Voices | Patheos

friendlyatheist.patheos.com

As one of the CD masterer / MOHD guys at a company that served over 1200 stations nationwide when I was there in the 90s-00s, I think you're onto something. A lot of the company's clients were clusters, a few were radio companies, who received one CD with the latest additions to several music formats (CHR/AC/Ctry & Rock/Urban/Urban AC). And even during MOHD days, the company sold entire formats, and posted the updates for stations to download.

And being that the client base was so widespread, and mostly medium sized markets all over the US, and in every region, super clean was the way it was done.

An individual station could always obtain the one with the cuss words if they so choosed. I'm not 100% certain how music is distributed today. I understand it's WAV's sent to companies, clusters, individual stations. My guess is the tracks sent to the clusters and companies have the cleaner edits.

 

[TheBigA]

I think as long as it’s infrequent and the audience doesn’t care, why should we care?

Tell that to the book banners who're going into your public schools and removing books based on one complaint.

That's what this is about. The rules are vague, so some people use that vagueness to promote an agenda.

Fortunately radio playlists have been off the radar, but it wouldn't take much to make them an issue.

 

[chrocket87]

Regarding the Jack Harlow song Lovin on Me, which both Billboard and Ryan Seacrest's AT40 regard as a #1 song on the charts, Movin 92.5 edits out the "chains" from the "I don't like no whips and chains" line in the chorus. Hits 106.1 doesn't.

I was traveling in the UK earlier in the year and BBC Radio also edits out “whips” and “chains” from that song. I recoiled at first because I didn’t think those words needed censored, even in their sexual connotation.

 

[Bongwater]

The court reserves the right to reverse itself, as it's done several times lately.

A Supreme Court that can reverse itself on civil and women's rights is hardly "supreme".