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Question about obscene content or cursing on the air.

I worked at a station that played a "radio edit" of "Won't Get Fooled Again", and it was.....awful.

If I remember correctly, that version was the single edit (3:36) that eliminated all of the instrumental solos. There was one pretty abrupt edit going into the final chorus. Nothing I recall that was obscene or objectionable in that song.
 
Exactly. This is key to understanding this topic. The FCC doesn't monitor radio stations for content, automatically fining stations when a song or a voice includes obscene content or cursing on the air. It's all up to listeners filing complaints with the FCC, and the FCC following up on those complaints. If no one complains, it's as though it didn't happen.
I remember getting home with the Book of Dreams album, and being surprised to see that on there. And even if I had somehow "missed" it, the lyrics were right there. But no big deal to me.

I never even let my mom know that I had the "Devil" 45, and remember, this was the "son of a gun" version! I never had the "son of a bitch" version until years later (long after I had left home) when I bought the Urban Cowboy soundtrack album. My mother didn't even like the subject matter of "Devil." She certainly wouldn't have liked the "bitch" version.

She didn't even like "With a Little Luck" because of the "make this whole damn thing work out" line on it. Never mind that that was the radio edit ("DJ edit," as it was called), so that line was only in there once.
 
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The silliest censorship that I have ever seen is on TV shows like Inside Edition, where they will slap that silly red ribbon over even the slightest HINT of cleavage. They did that again earlier this week in a segment about the Kardashian sister wearing the cutout dress to a friend's wedding. The People magazine show aired it uncensored, if I recall.

Inside Edition also censored a girl's butt in a segment about a mom being upset that this girl was wearing a thong bikini in the presence of her sons. Heaven help her if she ever takes them to a public water park. We went to a local water park last year in which thong swimsuits were specifically prohibited. But I still saw one or two girls wearing one. But apparently no one complained, so nothing was done.
 
The original version of Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John ended with the lyric, "At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man - big John." As this was deemed borderline profanity at the time, an alternate version was released which substituted the following: "At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man - big John."
 
I think even a better question would be: What is considered obscene? Back in the 70's, nobody seemed to be concerned with AOR stations playing an unedited copy of Who Are You, by The Who, yet occasionally a DJ is fired for accidentally letting a swear word slip, or for saying something defending gay people.

Given today's landscape of huge numbers getting their news and information from completely un-edited, many times anomalous sources, I hope the Commission continues to have obscenity cases thrown out of court.

Personally, I find examples of something like right-wing talk show host's advocating, let alone suggesting, that another public figure be assassinated, FAR more offensive and dangerous than an occasional F-bomb. But of course, that's called 'satire', or somehow a First Amendment right, when it suits the narrative.
When "Schindler's List" aired on TV, the F-word was used five times, most of those times in one sentence. And yet the language in the movie as a whole, to me, seemed less offensive than a typical episode of network prime time TV.
 
A few years later, I played the live version of Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" from CD, which I didn't know contained the "kiss my ass" line.
I was shocked to hear Toby Keith's song about "a boot in your ..." on a classic country station.

Back in the 90s there were several more adventurous country stations where I lived and they played the original Charlie Daniels version.
 
I never even let my mom know that I had the "Devil" 45, and remember, this was the "son of a gun" version! I never had the "son of a bitch" version until years later (long after I had left home) when I bought the Urban Cowboy soundtrack album. My mother didn't even like the subject matter of "Devil." She certainly wouldn't have liked the "bitch" version.
For "Devil Went Down to Georgia", WMEE on Fort Wayne IN flipped from AM to FM when the song was topping the charts. On AM, it was "son of a gun" but when they flipped to FM they used the "edgier" "bitch" version. The AM became "The Hawk 1380" with a very crossover approach to Country, which as far as I know, also played it and used "son of a gun".
 
Can't speak to now, but in the late 70s and early 80s, every FM rocker I heard that played The Who's "Who Are You" played the unedited album version with "who the f*** are you" in it.

And, apparently, what I thought was just a rhythmic voice in EMF's "Unbelievable" was someone saying "what the f***". Again, no idea if that's still airing unedited today.
 
I remember the F-word and the S-word clearly in a Green Day song in 1995 when a modern rock station in Charlotte NC had just changed. The person who answered the phone the next day said they were a private business. I sent a letter to the FCC. I'm pretty sure they weren't supposed to be doing that.
 
"Hey Jude" has an f bomb buried deep in the mix, supposedly it's John swearing because the volume in his headphones was too loud. Have stations gone in and removed it, or is it so quiet and obscure that the effort isn't worth it?
 
"What's Your Fantasy" by Lundacris.

Real 106.1 was an iHeart owned Throwback Hip-Hop station in Philly. I listened to it regularly on the app. When they would play "What's Your Fantasy" so much was edited out I was like "Why bother playing it at all?"

Meanwhile the two Audacy Throwback Hip-Hop Stations I listen to on the app - 94.7 The Block NYC and 104.3 Jams Chicago plays this song and while their is some editing of the song, it's nowhere near as bad as how it was edited on Real 106.1

The song came out in 99. Infinity Broadcasting (now Audacy) launched hip-hop formatted HOT 93.7 in Hartford in 01, so they would have the song in rotation. Again there was some editing of the song, but not like what iHeart did at Real 106.1
 
"Hey Jude" has an f bomb buried deep in the mix, supposedly it's John swearing because the volume in his headphones was too loud. Have stations gone in and removed it, or is it so quiet and obscure that the effort isn't worth it?
I've heard that all my life (I was 12 when "Hey Jude" came out) and I had no idea until today that he says "f***ing hell"). I don't think anyone has ever bothered to deal with that.

Engineer Geoff Emerick says it was Paul who said it when he hit a bad note on the piano. Lennon suggested they keep it in the mix.
 
I've heard that all my life (I was 12 when "Hey Jude" came out) and I had no idea until today that he says "f***ing hell"). I don't think anyone has ever bothered to deal with that.

There is an "obscene expletive" in the Kingsmen version of "Louie Louie" which as far as I know has never been edited out. It can be heard a bit less than a minute into the recording, right before the start of the second verse.

The story is that the drummer got off track a bit and lost the beat, and yelled out an f-bomb. You might not pick it out while listening casually, but once you know it's there you will hear it every time the song is played. It is definitely not buried in the mix.

Funny how J. Edgar's G-men failed to pick up on that outburst, when they were otherwise intently examining the song lyrics for alleged obscenity.
 
There is an "obscene expletive" in the Kingsmen version of "Louie Louie" which as far as I know has never been edited out. It can be heard a bit less than a minute into the recording, right before the start of the second verse.
The story is that the drummer got off track a bit and lost the beat, and yelled out an f-bomb. You might not pick it out while listening casually, but once you know it's there you will hear it every time the song is played. It is definitely not buried in the mix.
Funny how J. Edgar's G-men failed to pick up on that outburst, when they were otherwise intently examining the song lyrics for alleged obscenity.
This is MUCH more believable than "Hey Jude." It is at :57 in this clip:

 
Exactly. This is key to understanding this topic. The FCC doesn't monitor radio stations for content, automatically fining stations when a song or a voice includes obscene content or cursing on the air. It's all up to listeners filing complaints with the FCC, and the FCC following up on those complaints. If no one complains, it's as though it didn't happen.

Does KSTW has a studio for a newsroom production or are they going to outsource from their sister station KPIX/KBCW in San Francisco?
 
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