European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 13, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Today s crossword concern Over indecent language on the radio by Alex s. Jones naw York times a after eight years he Issue of complaints Aboul indecent language on radio has abruptly re emerged As a concern of the Federal communications commission. In september the Agency tent letters in two noncommercial California radio stations directing them to answer listener complaints Hal their programming violated commission standards. At one station the complaints involved vulgar language and a sexually explicit homosexual play and at the other the Issue was sexually oriented lyrics of a Rock song. The owners of work pm in new York a commercial station received a similar letter recently regarding complaints about the morning broadcast of Howard Stem an announcer whose on air Palter includes sexual double ent Endra bathroom humor and calculate Day tasteless Okes and insults. The format which has come to be known As Blue radio or Shock radio has attracted High listener ratings and similar broadcasts Are now aired in Providence Chicago and other major cities. Spokesmen at All three stations denied their broadcasts had violated acc standards. After considering the stations responses the Agency could drop the matter Issue a warning Levy a Fine or even try to strip a station of its License. Agency officials say decisions could cams by year s end. The commission has not sent such letters since 1978. When a decision by the United states supreme court established a decency Standard for radio broadcasting. Under presidents Carter and Reagan the commission has strongly advocated a hands flit Altitude regarding broadcast programming of All kinds. Mark 3. Fowler the acc chairman since 1981, has ire Quelly invoked the first amendment in arguing Hal broadcasters should have the same Freedom of expression As magazines and newspapers James c. Mckinney a tile of the Agency s mass Media Bureau says the commission s actions do not represent a change in policy bul Are in response to a level of severity in aired material that we Haven t seen until this year. According to Mckinney the commission is under unusually heavy Public pressure and received More than 20,000 letters this year complaining that what they called indecent or obscene material was being broadcast As against fewer than half that number the year before. And the complaint increasingly come from organized groups Hal Send detailed accounts end transcripts of objectionable material Hal. Mckinney said make the complaints much More Likely to be acted upon the National federation for decency. Morality in Media and the parents music resource Center which Are groups Active in Protasio helped prepare some of the complaints that prompted the Agency s three letters. Soma broadcasters and lawyers specializing in broadcast Taw say thai the commission s new interest in questions of decency is calculated to improve Fowler s chances of winning Senate approval next year of his renomination for another term As Chat Man. He s received a Good Deal of pressure from the right and from Congress and he s sufficiently hypocritical to abandon his pro first amendment views said Andrew j. Schwartzman executive director of Media Access project a Public interest Law concern that strongly opposes Content regulation of any kind. Mckinnay said such accusations Weic unfounded and the decision to Send the letters sprang from the acc staff not Fowler. The commission must decide whether the three stations violated the Standard for indecency that was established in a Case brought in 1974 by the Agency against Ubai pm a station in new York owned by the Pacifica foundation. Ubai had broadcast a comedy routine by George Carlin called the seven dirty words in which he repeatedly used seven words Hal he said could not be uttered on television. In 1978 the supreme court ruled in favor of the commission and set the Standard Hal indecent material is intimately connected Ullh the exposure of children to language that describes. In terms patently offensive As measured by contemporary Community standards for tha broadcast medium sexual or excretory activities and or organs at times of the Day when there is a reasonable risk that children May be in the  the ruling did not attempt to define patently of pensive closely nor did it say Afler what hour children might be assumed not to be in the audience. Significantly the ruling was explicit in limiting indecent to sexual and excretory activities which broadcast lawyers say Means material that is offensive for racial political or other reasons is not covered the three stations that received letters from the acc represent three different types of controversial programming. A pfc pm in los Angeles is also owned by Pacifica which operates five stations specializing in political and arts oriented programming often considered controversial. One of the complaints involved an outburst of language including some of the seven dirty words by a member of a Radical political group calling Itsell the Shock battalion on the group s weekly Early evening broadcast. The material was not scripted and immediately after the incident occurred the person was dropped from the group and the group gave up us weekly program. The acc notes that language can be indecent without using the seven words in the 1974 Pacifica Case. The other complaint was prompted by the broadcast at about 10 . Of sexually explicit portions of a play dealing with homosexuals which the station aired alter broadcasting a warning. In this Case the complaint came from or Larry Poland director of ministries at the Highland evangelical free Church in Highland. 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