Is profanity still against the rules on broadcast FM?

[The New Chico]

I'm just saying that "protecting the children" has always been the reason for this ruling and that is now a moot point. It's virtually impossible to justify! How many millions of parents are going to tell their kids they can't watch You Tube?

Not saying I agree or disagree with the sentiment, but I can justify it. The spectrum is owned by we the people, and it's not asking that much to keep up some at least minimal standards. YouTube space is not airspace, and is not "owned" by the public. I know, I know...just putting it out there. I always hear these idiots talking about what the FCC should do about content on certain cable channels and I laugh- that is NOT publicly owned space. Oh, and...

"Booger!"

 

[davideduardo]

What logger tapes? They aren't required in the US.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the main reason why a station keeps air tapes is to verify spot schedules if an advertiser throws an objection. As you say, there is no requirement.

It's now pretty cheap to keep a low-quality archive. I've got some of the new Seagate 20tb drives ordered for shipping next month, and they cost me what a 200mb drive cost me at the Pomona Computer Fair in 1992!

And my 10gb Winchester drive in around 1984 cost just under $4,000.

But we still can't make a cellular phone that does not drop calls.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

As mentioned in an earlier post, the main reason why a station keeps air tapes is to verify spot schedules if an advertiser throws an objection. As you say, there is no requirement.

It's now pretty cheap to keep a low-quality archive. I've got some of the new Seagate 20tb drives ordered for shipping next month, and they cost me what a 200mb drive cost me at the Pomona Computer Fair in 1992!

And my 10gb Winchester drive in around 1984 cost just under $4,000.

But we still can't make a cellular phone that does not drop calls.

Thats what an as played log is.. msot statiosn can generate that and show when things played on a paper print out

 

[davideduardo]

Thats what an as played log is.. msot statiosn can generate that and show when things played on a paper print out

In the last 25 years, I've never been with a domestic station that did not log off the program automation onto a hard drive where it was saved for about two billing periods.

Clients will say, "well, it is on the paper but it did not play on the air. When you have spots in the couple of hundred dollar to thousand dollar range back in the late 90's and pre-recession 00's, you want to make sure they get played.

 

[Syfy]

Before my retirement, WTVT television, Tampa, recorded audio and video 24 hours per day.
Back then, they used three VHS recorders and three 8 hour VHS tapes each day. They kept the tapes for 90 days (longer if there was any issue at all).
I'm sure that they're now recording on hard drives.

How long did they keep the tapes for? Is there like a vault at wtvt where they have all the old vhs tapes? Kind of like the concept of the disney vault. Where they store archives every second of the disney channel thats aired.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

And, when you get right down to it, what percentage of the population will tune away from something "because they don't swear enough"?

While I'm not into the genres which tend to use significant amounts of so-called profanity, I also don't know of anyone who prefers to listen to the radio edits of such music, given the choice.

Would be interesting to see the Spotify stats on this.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'm just saying that "protecting the children" has always been the reason for this ruling and that is now a moot point. It's virtually impossible to justify! How many millions of parents are going to tell their kids they can't watch You Tube?

A lot. Whether they'll obey or not is another thing. It's the 2020 version of Playboy under the mattress.

Also, protecting the children has never been the only reason. It's the one that most people seem to be able to rally around, but not giving Grandma a heart attack and not offending a still-significant percentage of adult Americans who'd prefer not to hear such language on the air are also factors.

20 years or more ago, I was writing for David Ferrell Jackson's RadioDigest.com, and I did a piece about this very argument. People even then were saying that the absence of language regulations on (some) Sirius and XM (they were competitors then) channels was the death knell for OTA radio.

I wrote something to the effect of: "If McDonalds tomorrow changed the name of the Big Mac to the Big F**kin' Mac, there are a whole lot of teenage boys and young adult males who'll think it's cool for about a week. And there are multiples of millions more who will never set foot in a McDonalds again."

Anyway, removing the language regulations on OTA AM-FM-TV is never going to be seen as a political position anyone's FCC is going to want to address, because of the political points I outlined. If the Republicans did it, they'd lose their base. If the Democrats did it, the Republicans would beat them over the head with it. Lose/Lose.

 

[michael hagerty]

Thats what an as played log is.. msot statiosn can generate that and show when things played on a paper print out

A paper log is a horrible comeback in a dispute over whether a client's spots aired. Digital audio backup is cheap, and, as I said, both the iHeart cluster I left earlier this year and the NPR station I work for now use them.

 

[michael hagerty]

While I'm not into the genres which tend to use significant amounts of so-called profanity, I also don't know of anyone who prefers to listen to the radio edits of such music, given the choice.

Would be interesting to see the Spotify stats on this.

If it was a significant enough turnoff, PT, there would presumably not be a profitable business in playing edited hip-hop over the air. We know that's not true.

 

[Kelly A]

Back when stations had more live talent, the logger recordings served two purposes. Now that stations are running more syndicated or automated programming, emphasis has moved away from logging for content to proving spots ran when scheduled. TV, on the other hand, has the visual element too. Some reincarnated Anita Bryant still could claim to the Commission they saw a ticker crawl on WXYZ that said kill all Republican's. Really? Let's go to the tape...

As David said; all advertisers and agencies are used to getting affidavits with their bill that states in writing that a spot(s) ran. The station automation outputs an 'as-run log', which in many cases, ties the time any element in the log is scheduled to play, with the time it actually played. For publicly-traded broadcast companies, we're audited every year to prove that this process is compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley.

 

[CTListener]

While I'm not into the genres which tend to use significant amounts of so-called profanity, I also don't know of anyone who prefers to listen to the radio edits of such music, given the choice.

I never get tired of what Dave Barry once called in one of his columns the "I am the world" logical fallacy: "I don't like X. Nobody I know likes X. Therefore, nobody likes X."

 

[Don CT]

Not saying I agree or disagree with the sentiment, but I can justify it. The spectrum is owned by we the people, and it's not asking that much to keep up some at least minimal standards. YouTube space is not airspace, and is not "owned" by the public. I know, I know...just putting it out there. I always hear these idiots talking about what the FCC should do about content on certain cable channels and I laugh- that is NOT publicly owned space. Oh, and...

"Booger!"

If we the people own it, we should be the ones getting the fees the FCC charges for it.

 

[Kelly A]

If we the people own it, we should be the ones getting the fees the FCC charges for it.

You don't own it. Just as with the air we all breathe, the airspace above our homes, and the water in the lakes, it's a shared resource ultimately controlled by some form of government.

 

[Don CT]

You don't own it. Just as with the air we all breathe, the airspace above our homes, and the water in the lakes, it's a shared resource ultimately controlled by some form of government.

Don't call it the public airwaves if we don't get anything out of it. It's been sold to the highest bidder.

 

[Kelly A]

Don't call it the public airwaves if we don't get anything out of it. It's been sold to the highest bidder.

There are countless things called public that you probably never directly benefit from yet pay for in taxes. It doesn't make them any less valuable to the public as a whole.

 

[davideduardo]

Don't call it the public airwaves if we don't get anything out of it. It's been sold to the highest bidder.

Roads are "public" yet shipping companies make money using them.

National forests are public, yet lumber companies make money harvesting parts of them.

There are many "public resources" that are owned by our nation that are granted use rights to in return for payment that help finance the country's treasury.

Oil rights, fishing rights, harbor access, right down to fees at a city pool or activity center room that charges a small fee for use.

Radio and TV stations pay license fees. There are processing fees for applications. All go to enable the agency to operate.

 

[Don CT]

There are countless things called public that you probably never directly benefit from yet pay for in taxes. It doesn't make them any less valuable to the public as a whole.

How many things that I pay in taxes go directly to commercial business.

 

[Don CT]

Roads are "public" yet shipping companies make money using them.

National forests are public, yet lumber companies make money harvesting parts of them.

There are many "public resources" that are owned by our nation that are granted use rights to in return for payment that help finance the country's treasury.

Oil rights, fishing rights, harbor access, right down to fees at a city pool or activity center room that charges a small fee for use.

Radio and TV stations pay license fees. There are processing fees for applications. All go to enable the agency to operate.

The FCC also resold those TV airwaves to the telecom industry. You could argue that over the air signals got worse after that.

 

[davideduardo]

How many things that I pay in taxes go directly to commercial business.

That is because in a free enterprise system, government subcontracts much of its work to private parties. Generally, bids are taken for services, materials and usage rights.

The alternative would be to have huge government "companies" providing goods and services.

Pemex in Mexico is an example of a government controlled industry. They control production, distribution and sales of petroleum and its products. The company is inefficient, and offers inefficient systems and prices and is filled with graft.

There are similar examples all over the world. Government companies make Yugos.

 

[The New Chico]

The government is you and me, David and Don and Kelly and all the rest of us. I know it is tough thinking that way in a country with a third of a billion people, it seems like such a HUGE disconnect between me and Washington DC, I get it. But it IS after all, "We the People." I realize it's tough in today's world not to get jaded by the politicians, but that's NOT the majority of what government is. I know a lot of government employees at the bureaucratic - professional level, and seems like every single one of them doesn't have an agenda, they are just trying to do a good job for their employer, the American taxpayer.

I agree, the government shouldn't be in competition with the private sector, like PEMEX. But here's the deal that few would care to acknowledge- there is some good to come out of the government that we the people have decided to operate. WWII was won by big government. Big government put a man on the moon, and is going to help private industry to do it again. Big government created the internet. Big government electrified this country. Big government is why the Covid vaccine will cost 20 bucks and not 500. Big government built the Interstate Highway system. As someone who has worked in the private sector my whole life, I understand why companies bitch about government regulation and what they call over reach. But I also know what my companies would have done without regulation, and it wouldn't have been pretty and it wouldn't have been just. If we are going to have Big Business, then we as individuals really NEED Big Government as a counter balance, warts and all.

And yes it IS your spectrum. But I get why it doesn't feel that way.