The "Explicit Language On-air" thread

[Good Cop]

Are sexual swear words now allowed on the radio? Are the public airways now uncensored and unregulated? Last night I was listening to Sean Harley's Soul Base show on Spin 1038 during which he played a song by Beatnuts. The song was full of sexual swear words and language which would usually be either blanked out or reversed on radio edits.

What's the legal position regarding this type of language? Do the BCI have any guidelines regarding the lyrical content of songs broadcast on it's licenced stations? Should Spin have played the radio edit of this song rather than the album version? What's the world coming to? :eek:

[KJ]

Id imagine its very much like the TV 9pm watershed ........ I heard Rick O Shea playing explicit Hip Hip last week and I thought nothing of it. Where it does sound bad tho is on daytime radio - it just sounds out of place IMHO


KJ

;)

[Good Cop]

The type of language broadcast by Spin last has never been on TV even after the 9pm watershed. Can anyone answer my original question? Do the BCI have any guidelines regarding the lyrical content of songs broadcast on it's stations? Do they regulate the content or is it a free-for-all? Can we play and say whatever the hell we want?

What have the Spin people have to say for themselves? Was the non-radio version played accidentally or was it intentional. As far as I know, stations in the US can play the explicit versions. Not so sure about Ireland. Someone must know.

[mattbrat24]

I think that it should at least be 10pm before music with explicit content is played on the radio. Cool FM 97.4 which broadcats from near where I live never plays explicit versions of songs at all not even after 10pm and I think that has its good points.

Matt :-)

[MrRolo]

I think it depends on the type of station you're listening to, personally if i heard bad language on a song played on Spin at 8.30 in the evening i would'nt think too much of it but if i heard 98fm play the same song at the same time then it would grab my attention even more and sound out of place. I could be wrong but im sure played Spin played the un-edited version of Eminem - 'Without Me' on the first few days of it being played at the station and i actually thought nothing of it.
Listening to the national stations also you will here the odd un-edited song on 2fm in the evening, Puddle Of Mudd springs to mind as where the listeners actually asked for the full version of 'She Hates Me' to be played, which it was. And in the UK if you listen to Tim Westwood at 9pm any friday evening you will hear a lot of swearing - but again it sounds in place so to spaek as thats the lanugage which goes with the music being played.

One other thing i've noticed in the past year or so is how record companies are stretching the limit of what passes as a 'Radio Edit' - especially with some r'n'b' songs which have numerous swears in them and even when they try to cut out the word - at times its just as clear as if it was left in!

[Mike]

I dont know of any actual formal guidelines (such as the FCC's infamous "Seven words you can never say on TV") but its generally understood that the acceptablity of swearing on air is dependent on the time of day and the nature of the audience (Spin v's RTE Radio 1 for example)

For some reason swearing on records is usually deamed more acceptable than swearing by presenters.

Personally I think such censorship is childish on stupid. Anyone who gets offended by swearing obviously has had a very sheltered existance and most young kids nowadays are swearing before they can even string a sentance together (Mind you some of them never do achieve that feat :-)

[KJ]

Personally I think such censorship is childish and stupid

Personally I would frown upon anyone young in the house hearing any of the 7 major no-no words on the radio before 9pm .......... it just doesnt seem right IMHO


KJ

;)

[POggeRsfromdouglas]

I heard Eminem- Stan at 8.00 a few months back and it sounded out of place

[silly billy]

what are the 7 infamous words that can't be said on tv?

[KJ]

I was quoting the guy who played poor Howerd Stern's 2nd boss in Private Parts ........... cant remember the exact "details" (bear in mind this was the American regulator too)

TV and radio would differ on regulations Id say, Im not 100%


"B*stard" was "de-sweared" a few years back wasnt it?


KJ

;)

[Mike]

Do an mp3 search for George Carlin "Seven words you can never say on television"

[Nick]

Cool Fm aren't 100% clean...

I've heard Enda Calwell say Sh*t on air,

and they played an uncut version of Stan a few months ago around midnight.

Also - "Bitch" has been desweared, but was it ever a swear word?

And "Bastard" has a clear meaning, which is not offensive unless used "offensively" which a great many words can be.

[Original Tyrone Gobshite!]

Cool FM have a habit of determining itself it's own censorship. This time last year with Afroman's "Cos I got high" song the original radio edits cut out the word "Paraplegic" but Cool used the Album track of the song which includes extra lyrics and a different start and ending and the line "Now I'm a paraplegic" (sp?) was left completely intact, along with some backing vocals which also contained swearing but wasn't obvious unless you listened carefully. They did however remove the lyrics referring to oral sex and mastubation - had these been allowed to go unedited you would have seen a rent-a-Free Presbyterian protest down in Newtownards faster than you can say "Movie Star Cafe!" :D