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Drinking
- Thread starter woliberty
- Start date
Only thing FCC might care about is what happens after drinking. Otherwise, first amendment protected area out of their purview.
Longtime holiday bit--usually TV, where the talent goes out to a police high speed driving test track. Runs a salom course sober, then after a few drinks, to demonstrate effect on driving abilities.
FCC not going to care on such stories, nor, of course, where the drinking is part of a dramatic production. Days of wine and roses, anyone?
Longtime holiday bit--usually TV, where the talent goes out to a police high speed driving test track. Runs a salom course sober, then after a few drinks, to demonstrate effect on driving abilities.
FCC not going to care on such stories, nor, of course, where the drinking is part of a dramatic production. Days of wine and roses, anyone?
As I know it, drinking over the air IS tolerated. But definitely not recommended. The only times when drinking on the air is even permitted on some radio stations is with a local sheriff to demonstrate how many drinks it takes before you're over the legal limit for driving.
Rarely, if at all, does a jock actually get drunk in that setting or with the amount of alcohol actually consumed. It isn't like they have a fully stocked bar. Usually a couple cans of beer will do it. The jock is usually sober enough to keep going as usual for the rest of his/her shift. But I'm sure there were some lightweights.
Drug use is absolutely not tolerated. Though it's much harder to prove. I've known a few rock jocks with a cocaine problem as well as some stoner easy listening jocks.
But most don't want to be in ANY kind of fog on the air. I didn't.
Rarely, if at all, does a jock actually get drunk in that setting or with the amount of alcohol actually consumed. It isn't like they have a fully stocked bar. Usually a couple cans of beer will do it. The jock is usually sober enough to keep going as usual for the rest of his/her shift. But I'm sure there were some lightweights.
Drug use is absolutely not tolerated. Though it's much harder to prove. I've known a few rock jocks with a cocaine problem as well as some stoner easy listening jocks.
But most don't want to be in ANY kind of fog on the air. I didn't.
One day in 1990 my dorm-mates and I were staffing the student-run university station when our British student friend came in and said, "I'm pissed!" We asked him what he was mad about before we realised that "pissed" in British slang meant drunk. We didn't know the policy on intoxicated broadcasting, so we let him on anyway.
I'd think if you were the operator on duty, the feds might frown on that. Or at least back in the day that someone signed on the logs
I believe early on (70's, 80's) there may have been something in the regs about drinking as I remember one station ops manager having a fit about the talent partying while on the air.
Then again, this thread reminds me of the WKRP in Cincinnati episode where Johnny and Venus drink on the air to illustrate the perils of being impaired by drinking. The officer administering the test was in awe as Johnny's reaction time got better with each drink!
Then again, this thread reminds me of the WKRP in Cincinnati episode where Johnny and Venus drink on the air to illustrate the perils of being impaired by drinking. The officer administering the test was in awe as Johnny's reaction time got better with each drink!
The only issue for the FCC would be if the person actually in control of the transmitter is drunk
KeithE4 said:
IIRC, the rule was that the beverage so consumed had to be spit out and not swallowed. But I think this was in the old NAB code, not FCC rules. There are quite a few anecdotes about the spitting being seen on air, even with comments... even though the camera should have not been live. There are probably better recollections than mine, though.
DavidEduardo said:
I think it can safely be said that Harry Caray never spit out a beer in his life. ;D
His drinking on-air was part of the Falstaff commercials that he did live between innings. IIRC, he only did that while Falstaff was the sponsor. When they switched to Strohs in the late '70s, I don't remember him doing this but I don't think he did those commercials live. He certainly didn't (at least on camera
) during his time on WGN.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
Dean Martin's daughter recently said in an interview that her father always drank
apple juice on the rocks during his TV show.
Otherwise she said he would have been passed out on the floor by the time
they got to the first commercial break.
apple juice on the rocks during his TV show.
Otherwise she said he would have been passed out on the floor by the time
they got to the first commercial break.
Whether Dean Martin did or didn't drink heavily in real life, the heavy drinker persona was part of the act.
According to Randy Tarborelli's biography, whenever Martin was asked about his drinking, he'd rattle off all that he'd done during his career, then ask the questioner if he could have accomplished all that (movies, TV, recording, live Vegas shows, etc.) if he'd been smashed all the time.
My understanding is yes, the drunk personna was part of the act and apple juice (or sometimes ginger ale) was frequently used. But from what I've read and heard, Martin indeed enjoyed relaxing with a few drinks, but by most...if not all...accounts, did not regularly imbibe to excess.
My understanding is yes, the drunk personna was part of the act and apple juice (or sometimes ginger ale) was frequently used. But from what I've read and heard, Martin indeed enjoyed relaxing with a few drinks, but by most...if not all...accounts, did not regularly imbibe to excess.
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