WDDJ Guns 'n' Roses ban

[NoWayNoCC]

Hahahahaha, anyone remember this?

This was a national story back when it happened, so I'm surprised you never hear anything about it here.

Back around 1990, several members of Guns 'n' Roses used the f-word during an awards show on TV. Because of this, WDDJ promptly blackballed Guns 'n' Roses music - even though the band members' cussing hadn't occurred on WDDJ's airwaves.

Was WDDJ the only station that blacklisted Guns 'n' Roses over that incident? (WLAP-FM sure didn't, because they kept talking about the incident like it was funny, which it was.)

How prudish can WDDJ possibly be over an event that didn't even involve the station?

Did WDDJ ever lift its Guns 'n' Roses ban? Now that Guns 'n' Roses has a new album, will it?

 

[slick81]

WDXR had a petition drive in the 70s to reunite the Beatles. In both cases, it's more about generating buzz (free, too!) than "accomplishing" anything. And the fact that you remember it 19 years later speaks for itself. I'm pretty sure that "being prudish" had nothing to do with it.

WKYX refused to play "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates due to the "bitch girl" lyric, and "Only The Good Die Young" by Billy Joel because of the "Catholic girls" references. I'm sure they were both eventually played, but they were oldies by then.

If I were still the 97FM PD, I'd have said "if you hear us slip up and play a GNR song by mistake anytime day or night, be the first caller and win....." but that's just me. I'm a graduate of "Secret Sound" University... ;D

 

[John-Summers]

KICKS also refused to play Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back," though DXR did. Come to think of it, that's the only Elton John hit that I have never, ever played in 30-some years.

 

[NotSoClearChannel]

How prudish can WDDJ possibly be over an event that didn't even involve the station?

Did WDDJ ever lift its Guns 'n' Roses ban? Now that Guns 'n' Roses has a new album, will it?

It wouldn't surprise me because they tend to lean more on the conservative side.

I don't remember hearing any old-school GNR songs on WDDJ, but they really don't fit the format and neither does the new album.

Although, given the state of CHR these days, WDDJ can't be too prudish. ;D

NSCC

 

[skippertthomas]

It's all in our Bible Belt History.... It's in the Ohio River Water.... Midwest meets Midsouth....
KXOK only played "The Bitch Is Back" but never announced the title in St.Louis...
KXOK edited the "A" from the Steely Dan song "Aja" and spliced it over the "F" in their song, "FM" to make it "AM"....
WKYX had the signal, owners and client advertisers to push a load of those edits... KLID in Poplar Bluff (SEMO) edited "Rich Girl" to pieces... WITZ in Jasper, IN played the Billy Joel (Die Young) ONCE... 90% German-American Catholic community...The Diocese went nuts... Tom Sheldon and I (he just passed away up in Mt.Vernon, IL) were at KGMO in Cape, (SEMO) and edited the "GD" out of The Eagles; "Life In The Fastlane" to have a duck call to replace the obscenity "GD".... WJPS in Evansville edited "Crap" out of Paul Simon's; "Kodachrome" and missed a beat... They did the same with Chicago's: "Just You & Me" when they took a full beat out with the removing of "Damn" from the line "Loving you is so (dump word) easy!!!" When WIKY was MOR, current owner and board president J.D. Engelbrecht asked his dad, John A. Engelbrecht if they could play "The Carpenters" becuase of their mass appeal... John A. said he would not play Rock-N-Roll on his 50kw giant! Many stations in this part of America's heartland scracted a nickle over the back side of the 45 rpm of Nazareth's "Love Hurts", just in case they got a mad DJ who would consider playing "Hair Of The Dog" on the flip... Same thing with The Beatles in '67....Play "Penny Lane, but don't play that drug song on the dual sided hit ("Strawberry Fields Forever")... If you saw the video promotional clip, they were on something and it was not hot tea time! ;D

 

[greg.hahn]

It's all in our Bible Belt History.... It's in the Ohio River Water.... Midwest meets Midsouth....
KXOK only played "The Bitch Is Back" but never announced the title in St.Louis...
KXOK edited the "A" from the Steely Dan song "Aja" and spliced it over the "F" in their song, "FM" to make it "AM"....
WKYX had the signal, owners and client advertisers to push a load of those edits... KLID in Poplar Bluff (SEMO) edited "Rich Girl" to pieces... WITZ in Jasper, IN played the Billy Joel (Die Young) ONCE... 90% German-American Catholic community...The Diocese went nuts... Tom Sheldon and I (he just passed away up in Mt.Vernon, IL) were at KGMO in Cape, (SEMO) and edited the "GD" out of The Eagles; "Life In The Fastlane" to have a duck call to replace the obscenity "GD".... WJPS in Evansville edited "Crap" out of Paul Simon's; "Kodachrome" and missed a beat... They did the same with Chicago's: "Just You & Me" when they took a full beat out with the removing of "Damn" from the line "Loving you is so (dump word) easy!!!" When WIKY was MOR, current owner and board president J.D. Engelbrecht asked his dad, John A. Engelbrecht if they could play "The Carpenters" becuase of their mass appeal... John A. said he would not play Rock-N-Roll on his 50kw giant! Many stations in this part of America's heartland scracted a nickle over the back side of the 45 rpm of Nazareth's "Love Hurts", just in case they got a mad DJ who would consider playing "Hair Of The Dog" on the flip... Same thing with The Beatles in '67....Play "Penny Lane, but don't play that drug song on the dual sided hit ("Strawberry Fields Forever")... If you saw the video promotional clip, they were on something and it was not hot tea time! ;D

That's an amazing collection, Skipper, thank you for sharing it. Yet the same guys, no doubt, would have given a pass to Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night." (I argued for hours with a sales manager over that song one time saying it absolutely would NOT be played on my Christian/MOR radio station.) They would ban the word "bitch", yet see nothing inherently wrong with a song about sex with a stranger, as long as it was sung by "Old Blue Eyes." Talk about screwed up!

Then there was Freddie Weller's "Perfect Stranger", The Kendall's "Heaven's Just a Sin Away, and Conway's "You've Never Been this Far Before". And how many other songs with an immoral message got a pass because they weren't rock-n-roll?

If they'd had a consistent message, perhaps the Bible Belt wouldn't have gotten such a bad name. Instead they winked at Sinatra and threw out the Carpenters. People aren't that stupid.

 

[radiorob2.0]

You mentioned You've Never Been This Far Before, it was a national Top 40 hit for Conway thanks to WAKY. WINN banned the record and made a big deal of its bannation. Johnny Randolph who was never shy to play country on WAKY added the song and played the daylights out of it. Other stations who copied WAKY did the same and the rest is history.

Meanwhile, Karl Shannon was doing nights on WINN and couldn't find a copy of the Conway song. He went back to the record library for a copy and played it. The next night Karl noticed the record disappeared again, so he brought another copy out of the record library. Finally, management called to politely inform Karl the record was banned. It seems Karl didn't get the memo.

My experience with a banned record bordered on the supernatural. WVJS Owensboro would not play Only The Good Die Young. The Steele Family along with upper management were devout Catholics and that song would not be played on their radio station. About twenty years later I'm working for sister station WSTO now under different ownership and management. During the 96STO Flashback Cafe I decided to play the song. I forward promoted the song by saying something to the effect of, "up next a song that was banned by the former owners of 96STO." Out of the stopset and jingle I fired up the CD player, the first couple of notes played then the CD player jumped to the end of the cut. At the same time, the Scott Studio Screen flashed and the playback unit didn't function for a few moments. WVJS experienced the same event with its Scott Studio playback unit. I'm sure it was a coincidence but then again, maybe it was the ghost of V.J. Steele or Malcolm Greep reminding me not to play that song.

 

[Mr1derful]

Back in '87, 'DDJ banned George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" from its airwaves. The station got some press over it.

I realize this is an old thread, but this is the first time since December that I've been able to log on and post. The new website wouldn't recognize my password. After weeks of unanswered emails and a few days of back and forth with the MBE, I'm finally back.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Back in '87, 'DDJ banned George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" from its airwaves. The station got some press over it.

Q-102 Cincinnati banned this song, and even removed it from 'American Top 40'. About 2 years later, however, they occasionally played it without any problems, but by then it was noncurrent.

I know I heard this song on WLAP-FM once in a great while (maybe once or twice in 2 years), but I never listened to that station until after the song became noncurrent. (I heard it during the daytime, no less, on a heavily dayparted station.)

 

[skippertthomas]

Let's see.. On this 80's hit, I was at WRTB-FM (106.5) in Washington-Vincennes-Jasper when it came out.. Our PD and MD (Mitch Cooley and Danny Wayne) put it into the low "C" rotation with a note that if we felt, in our view, it was too lude to play, just pass it and rotated it to the back of the stack...The only requirement, is that we would not talk about skipping it, if we did not play it, or not rant on the air, if we did (and others did not).... About three or four weeks in, we had a scheduled staff meeting and Danny asked us, who was actually playing the single.... Only one jock (the overnight) was playing it, at all.. Danny then (with 45 in hand) smiled and broke the single, in front of the laughing staff... I did get some grief from a few listeners when I played "Beastie Boys"-You've Got The Right...Since, I was doing the Contemporary Christian show on Sunday mornings.... :

 

[KyDXIn]

I did get some grief from a few listeners when I played "Beastie Boys"-You've Got The Right...Since, I was doing the Contemporary Christian show on Sunday mornings.... :

I BET you got some grief playing the Beastie Boys on a Sunday morning Christian show! HAHAHAHAH! But then again Jesus did have long hair...

 

[skippertthomas]

KyDxIn... I can assure you the 'Boys' only came up in the regular shift.....Ha-Ha! ;D And here is the old late 60's and early 70's joke... The teen wants the car for Friday night and dad says; "Get a haircut and you can have a car!"..... The teen reminds dad that Jesus had long hair.... Dad then reminds the teen; "And, Jesus WALKED most everywhere he went!"...

 

[radiorob2.0]

Back in the day at WVJS we aired the 10:45 services of Third Baptist Church. It was suggested we'd be careful on what songs we played going into the service. This was from the time we played Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer with the line, "The whores on Seventh Avenue." It became a running gag on what songs we added to our mythical list:

Let the Little Girl Dance
Bottle of Wine
Dance, Dance, Dance
and other songs a good Baptist might find objectionable

Later in life, STO stayed away from Bitch by Meridith Brooks because of the bluntness of how the word was used. At the same time we played the Grease Megamix. It was a medley of Summer Nights, You're The One That I Want and Greased Lighting. Of course Greased Lighting included these lyrics:

With new pistons, plugs, and shocks I can get off my rocks
You know that I ain't bragging she's a real (slang term for a woman's private parts) wagon
and
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning

 

[KyDXIn]

Back in the day at WVJS we aired the 10:45 services of Third Baptist Church. It was suggested we'd be careful on what songs we played going into the service. This was from the time we played Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer with the line, "The whores on Seventh Avenue." It became a running gag on what songs we added to our mythical list:

Let the Little Girl Dance
Bottle of Wine
Dance, Dance, Dance
and other songs a good Baptist might find objectionable

What? No "Temptation Eyes"?

 

[firepoint525]

I recall a certain announcer on KF-99 (city of license, Fulton) who said on the air that he wouldn't play Laura Branigan because she performed in South Africa back when apartheid was still in effect.

The GM of KF-99 and its sister station WENK-AM said that he would not play the Beastie Boys because they allegedly went to a children's home and made fun of the children there. (I didn't hear this one; my sister did, and told me about it.)

These same announcers also stated that they wouldn't play Cat Stevens (over WENK, since it was an oldies station) because he supported the death threat against Salman Rushdie over "The Satanic Verses."

This was all back in the '80s, of course.