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Song you wondered how they they ever got played on Top 40 radio

K.M. Richards said:
They ran on all the top-40 stations. I remember that KKDJ (now KIIS-FM) had them about as often as KHJ.
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In fact, you can hear it. Someone clipped it from a 1974 aircheck of Charlie Van Dyke on KHJ, and you get to hear CVD do the live tag:




This is MORNING DRIVE.


It was a very specific thing to that film, though. I don't remember X-rated theater ads on L.A. radio before or after "Deep Throat."

But---San Diego was a completely different thing. This is back when what is now the Gaslamp Quarter was sailor bars, massage parlors, pool halls, X-rated movie theaters and porn shops. KFMB, at the time a few blocks up Fifth Street, when instructing listeners how to drop by to pick up prizes, would occasionally say "we're the first legitimate business on Fifth Street."

Anyway, there were several X-rated theaters and they advertised on several stations, including KCBQ, KGB and KFMB-AM.

I once recorded an aircheck of Perry Allen on KFMB---an adult contemporary station---in 1975.

He had a recorded spot for one of the theaters. It was generic, only mildly suggestive ("the finest in adult entertainment", "ladies welcome"), and then the jock had to deliver a live tag with the name of the movie showing that week and the phrase "shows continuously from noon daily."

All good.

Except that week's film was "Lickity Split."

Perry opens the mic and gets as far as the title, and then falls completely apart. He tries, God bless him, he tries to straighten up, but he just can't.

Trouble was, he tried for close to a minute.

I listened to KFMB daily in those days---that was the last of those commercials I ever heard on that station.

A voracious cassette deck ate that tape in the 80s.
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned Jan Ian's controversial interracial dating tune from 1967, entitled "Society's Child."

Then there was Stories' "Brother Louie" which came out in 1973, and I don't remember there being any controversy by that time. Although the song it its original form (by Hot Chocolate) was a bit more controversial... it was a hit in the UK, but Stories had the US hit.
 
tall_guy1 said:
Just L.A. or other parts of the country? Any midwest towns or anything you know of?
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That's not really something I tracked. I grew up in L.A., as did K.M., so we heard them first-hand (and are lucky to have that clip from Charlie Van Dyke's morning show on KHJ).

Although I heard them in L.A. and San Diego, I can say I never heard them in San Francisco, which is generally regarded as the more liberal city.
 
It is ALWAYS worth noting that L.A. is unlike any other city anywhere on earth and certainly anywhere in the other 49 states.

Before Pussycat Theaters started advertising, Robert W. Morgan had this classic few minutes in May of 1973. I would have gotten fired for any or all of this:

 
tall_guy1 said:
Just L.A. or other parts of the country? Any midwest towns or anything you know of?
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As far as I know, "Deep Throat" at the Pussycat Theater was a local phenomenon, although I seem to recall that its premiere was in NYC, with a print ad in the New York Times.
 
K.M. Richards said:
As far as I know, "Deep Throat" at the Pussycat Theater was a local phenomenon, although I seem to recall that its premiere was in NYC, with a print ad in the New York Times.
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Boy, Lance don't know what he's missing...

So, it turns out that 23 states banned "Deep Throat" as obscene, which means it probably showed in the other 27. I cannot imagine that many radio stations in other markets (other than maybe album rock stations) would have said yes to advertising.

Even if WNBC wanted the money, they'd have said no just because of the trouble caused by Imus doing the live tag.

firstamendment.mtsu.edu

Deep Throat

Deep Throat (1972), a pornographic film, introduced mainstream society to pornography and was banned as obscene in 23 states. Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
firstamendment.mtsu.edu firstamendment.mtsu.edu

Also, the spots we heard were from the Pussycat Theater, not the film company, and I just learned (boy, if my search history turns up in the wrong hands, I got some 'splainin' to do) that Pussycat was a purely California business:

Pussycat Theaters - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Regarding "Kodachrome", in Tulsa Drake-consulted KAKC played an edited version but their competition KELI played it unedited. KELI also played "Timothy" but KAKC didn't. I believe the BBC didn't play it because of the brand-name title.

Tulsa was a conservative town in those days, but "Society's Child" went to number 1 on KAKC. They also played Brown Sugar, DOA, Brother Louie, and several others on this thread. For some reason, "crap" was a bridge too far for them.
 
"This record actually got to the #3 position in the spring of 1936 on the Billboard jukebox (Vocalion, when they were tracked by label) chart. Not much later, the jukebox chart indicated that 'Double meaning records are purposely omitted from this column.'"

 
yeoldeschool said:
I remember specifically being shocked by the relentless muting of words during the reruns of The Golden Girls on Hallmark Channel. What kind of world are we living in where that show is now offensive to people? :(
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Golden Girls fans Blanche at bad language.
michael hagerty said:
It was a very specific thing to that film, though. I don't remember X-rated theater ads on L.A. radio before or after "Deep Throat."
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I’ve heard one on an old KROQ aircheck for a film at the Pussycat Theater, but it wasn’t “Deep Throat”. It might have been “Behind The Green Door”.
 
michael hagerty said:
Record company intervention is what got "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones on WABC. London Records convinced Rick Sklar that the line was "played a divorcee in New York City", not "laid..."

Of course, they lied, but...
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Wasn't that a change for WABC? They used to be family-oriented and avoid anything controversial, but in the 70s, not only did they play Barry White and Sylvia, but Dan Ingram used to do some pretty edgy stuff around their songs.
 
Ed Nielson said:
Wasn't that a change for WABC? They used to be family-oriented and avoid anything controversial, but in the 70s, not only did they play Barry White and Sylvia, but Dan Ingram used to do some pretty edgy stuff around their songs.
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Well, again, London Records had to lie about the lyrics to get WABC on it.

After that, hey, the job was to play the most popular songs and those were the most popular songs. Music changed. Society changed. If WABC hadn’t changed with them, WABC would have been dead sooner.

I mean, I'm kinda surprised I have to explain that to anyone alive at the time. WABC didn't exist to guard morality, it existed to make money by playing the most popular hits in New York City at the time.
 
kevtronics said:
"This record actually got to the #3 position in the spring of 1936 on the Billboard jukebox (Vocalion, when they were tracked by label) chart. Not much later, the jukebox chart indicated that 'Double meaning records are purposely omitted from this column.'"

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That's a keeper. Although not a true "top 40" song, there was another great double entendre record from the early 1950s that, at least, made Dr. Demento's top 10 countdowns more than once. Look for "Big Ten Inch" by "Bull Moose Jackson" on Youtube, if you aren't already familiar with it.

tall_guy1 said:
Hallmark and several religious type stations are the only ones with those kinds of edits.
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I'll take your word for it. It's been too long to remember what the other channels were. Everything I saw at this relative's place was on their DVR, which was plucking gobs of shows from multiple cable networks.

vchimpanzee said:
Hallmark is very prudish. Given how Blanche would talk, I'm surprised anyone would call that show family-friendly.
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Did Saturdays at 9 PM on NBC not count as family viewing time in the '80s? I used to watch that show on weekends during its original run thanks to adults who were in command of the remote control. Clearly, it never did anything to warp my brain later in life...
 
yeoldeschool said:
That's a keeper. Although not a true "top 40" song, there was another great double entendre record from the early 1950s that, at least, made Dr. Demento's top 10 countdowns more than once. Look for "Big Ten Inch" by "Bull Moose Jackson" on Youtube, if you aren't already familiar with it.


I'll take your word for it. It's been too long to remember what the other channels were. Everything I saw at this relative's place was on their DVR, which was plucking gobs of shows from multiple cable networks.


Did Saturdays at 9 PM on NBC not count as family viewing time in the '80s? I used to watch that show on weekends during its original run thanks to adults who were in command of the remote control. Clearly, it never did anything to warp my brain later in life...
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Family hour was the FIRST hour of prime time (8, 7 Central).
 


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