[cma-l] Offensive language on radio - how to avoid the pitfalls

[Two Lochs Radio]

We have exactly the same sort of situation as described by Julian, and I think his stance is eminently sensible and pretty much the same as ours.

We have thankfully only ever had one complaint, despite a few songs slipping through over the years. The complaint regarded a track played in a Gaelic presented programme, but the offensive wording was in English - which raised some interesting discussion. Especially as one very common and frequently used word in Gaelic presentation sounds very similar to an offensive English word!

Our instructions to presenters if something untoward does slip by is simply to end the item, say a very simple direct apology for the oversight, move on and not refer to it again.

Ironically, our presenters most likely to play an accidentally unsuitable track for younger listeners, are of course the younger ones themselves! They are very good and generally very careful to self-censor, more so perhaps than the adults. However, the fact is that the copies of tracks that they listen to privately are generally the uncensored ones, and they have to remember to be extra careful when using their own tracks in the studio.

We have in the past also had a show later in the evening where we allowed pretty much anything (excluding in-your-face obscene) incidental to a very wide range of non-radio edit music including punk, reggae, and modern indie, and never had a single complaint, not even an informal adverse comment. I guess this is because it was clearly in the nature of the show, and those liable to be offended would not have listened to it.

I think common sense and decency are better guidelines than any further regulation in this area. 

Alex
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Julian Mellor 
  To: CMA-L 
  Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 11:11 AM
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] Offensive language on radio - how to avoid the pitfalls


  This has already raised some issues and concerns for us.


  Underlying it is I think the whole regulatory setup of radio i.e. everyone plays by the same rules.  In itself there's nothing wrong with that, but when the rules are written by organisations with professional and paid capacity, those rules can easily be blind to the challenges that they pose to organisations running under limited volunteer steam.
  l
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