Re: Complaint Filed With FCC Over Opie & Anthony's Latest Stunt

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>Aaron wrote--
>I concur with Sid's post.   The whole dividing line between indecent & 
>obscene on the radio has historically (and still currently) been decided 
>by the city of license - i.e. the listeners.  NOT by the feds.  The FCC 
>has repeatedly shown that if your audience can take it, they don't 
>mind.  However, as of late, if your audience doesn't like it and 
>complains, the FCC will put the smackdown on you (compared to 5 or 10 
>years ago anyway).

I was told on very good authority that Infinity built in a certain amount 
of money to pay fines for Howard Stern-- they considered it just the cost 
of doing business.  Somehow, I doubt that things will be much different 
with Opie & Anthony.  I mean, 25 years ago, if you said the mayor had died 
(and he really hadn't), the FCC would have been all over you like a cheap 
suit, assuming you didn't lose your job-- and your credibility-- for a long 
long time.  But since Deregulation, the FCC doesn't seem to feel it should 
be actively involved, and many station GMs seem to feel that you should be 
as outrageous as you can get away with being.  There may be some bloviating 
and speechifying in the newspapers in NYC, but I really doubt any serious 
punishment will befall O&A.   Their target audience is not church-goers 
anyway, so I am sure they expected a certain amount of grief from those who 
say shock radio is ruining the morals of America.  Now, if ADVERTISERS are 
offended and they pull their commercials, that will be a different story 
entirely, and O&A will get into trouble over this incident after 
all.  (Just my semi-cynical opinion...)