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Can they say that on the radio?

While listening to WKOX, waiting for some indication that they are actually testing from the new Newton site (I've heard no such indication so far), I noticed that a) some of the commercials are in English, although all of the program "content" is in Spanish, a language that I do not understand and b) they run a spot--in English--from a business (bakery in Somerville that apparently specializes in cupcakes) whose company name includes a word that I didn't think you were allowed to say on the air. Most likely, this same spot runs on other Boston area stations, but I haven't heard it, I guess because I don't listen to those stations. So is there an FCC rule that says that if a sponsor's company name includes a word or words that aren't supposed to be used on the air, the rule about what words you can't use is waived? Or am I wrong about this particular word--and the FCC allows its use after all?
 
Dan,

One would need to know the word in question if you would loke a comprehensive response. It is unlikely that the spot is on other stations as the company sounds so small that they could not afford the rates in any day part. This is speculation of course, but if they had a decent ad budget, one would think that they would take their message to a more mainstream audience or at least translate in into Spanish to maximize its effectiveness on the Spanish station.
 
Dan,

One would need to know the word in question if you would loke a comprehensive response. It is unlikely that the spot is on other stations as the company sounds so small that they could not afford the rates in any day part. This is speculation of course, but if they had a decent ad budget, one would think that they would take their message to a more mainstream audience or at least translate in into Spanish to maximize its effectiveness on the Spanish station.
 
Hell, On the old Mattlock TV series -- Mattlock would call you a Jackass if you didn't like hotdogs. Know one ever fined Mattlock for using the word "hotdog". It was OK for the Barbara Ann Bakery to talk about buns, just not Barbara Ann's buns and of course hotdogs.
 
They could say kickbutt if they didn't want to offend.

A spoonerism* is when someone mixes up parts of words (example: "a White House source" becomes
a "White Horse Souse"; one can only imagine if someone
mispronounced the following on air (if only with the last word):

We will be right back after this message from a great hamburger place: Fuddrucker's!

*--The Capitol Steps do a regular spoonerism bit in their act and on their albums:
Lirty Dies And Scicious Vandals.
 
sam said:
Hell, On the old Mattlock TV series -- Mattlock would call you a Jackass if you didn't like hotdogs. Know one ever fined Mattlock for using the word "hotdog". It was OK for the Barbara Ann Bakery to talk about buns, just not Barbara Ann's buns and of course hotdogs.

You can call someone a Jackass because he is Republican...or rather...because a Jackass is an animal...You could call some one a **** as in Rooster but not a **** S*cker as that would be bad.
 
You can also say the name of the dog breed "shih tzu" on the air; however, you can't just as easy say you are going to a pet store and plan to "take a shih tzu"...
 
I went to several "productions" at Jimmy Tingle's theater in Davis Square; I didn't notice Kickass Cupcakes, but did notice that the ambiance of Davis Square would certainly fit in with such a moniker.
 
The FCC does not fine for certain words, though the general practice has been that George Carlin's "7 Dirty Words" are not acceptable on the air. Ass is not one of Carlin's words, so most stations feel safe with it. The FCC has a much broader rule that things considered "obscene, indecent, or profane" with certain limitations based on the hours of the day in which the content is aired. You can find a nice rundown at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/obscene.html
 
WLYNgm said:
"WCOZ , kick-ass rock and roll" - aired regularly, circa 1979-80
There certainly is a precedent...

I was just about to mention that. People are getting nuts about this shi... uh, stuff... In the Globe, they put in [darn] in a quote instead of using the word "damn"...
 
DToTheJ said:
You can also say the name of the dog breed "shih tzu" on the air; however, you can't just as easy say you are going to a pet store and plan to "take a shih tzu"...
I forget whether the jurisdiction involved in this story was a European country or a US state, but this was a news item within the last couple of weeks and it supposedly really did happen. A guy paid the fee to get a vanity automobile license plate with his real last name on it but the jurisdiction where he lived denied his application and returned the fee because they decided that his name sounded obscene--Lipschitz. It's a REAL name. I knew someone with that name once. Kids with that last name learn to be tough at a very early age!
 
I saw the film Beverly Hills Cop, in the theater, when it first came out.
Years later, I saw it on TV. The only editing that was done was for
the language (little skin or gore shown...). Know what? It didn't change
the tone of the film at all! The language was strictly gratuitous and
not necessary...
 
As Master Carlin said, "You can prick your finger but doooon't finger your prick! No-no!!!" :D

I saw the film Beverly Hills Cop, in the theater, when it first came out. Years later, I saw it on TV. The only editing that was done was for the language (little skin or gore shown...). Know what? It didn't change the tone of the film at all! The language was strictly gratuitous and not necessary...

Well of course! When a movie sucks as much as that one did, what profanity you throw in there doesn't really matter. ZING!!!

Sorry man, you walked right into that one! ::)
 
Laurence Glavin said:
I went to several "productions" at Jimmy Tingle's theater in Davis Square; I didn't notice Kickass Cupcakes, but did notice that the ambiance of Davis Square would certainly fit in with such a moniker.

It's on Highland Ave, behind the block where Tingle's was.
 
You CAN'T say any of the seven deadly words of George Carlin on the radio.

So I used to write twisted bedtime stories in double entendre (as "Uncle Larry's Story Time", to a soundtrack of a music box recorded on a fluttery tape deck), using the MANY words you can STILL use on the radio, from c--k (is still a correct term for rooster), p---y (is STILL a correct, casual term for cat. I edited these HARMLESS words here so not to ruffle editorial feathers any more than I already do.)

Even "gay" was once considered a naughty word to say on the radio by programmers in the '70s and the '80s (though always OK by FCC standards.) Even though the word STILL meant before then, then - and now - "happy, lively and vivacious".

They sounded like Mother Goose meets Penthouse Forum.) Every word I used was written in such a way that the story could be translated as a strange, but still an innocent story in STILL proper grammar, in spite of their alternative definitions. But hilarious sagas to anyone else.

Nothing X-rated about them really. It's just proof that the definition of obscenity is really just all in YOUR mind.

I wasn't the first one to do this. It might have been George Carlin.

I still have several of them, but I cannot print them here. But you get the idea....
 
WLYNgm said:
"WCOZ , kick-ass rock and roll" - aired regularly, circa 1979-80
There certainly is a precedent...

He is correct...WCOZ used the phrase in their legal ID in those days, as did 107.5-WBLM Lewiston/Portland, Me
at the time...
 
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