Radio Self-Censorship

In 2001 it was widely reported that Clear Channel banned 150 songs in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. (I claimed that here too.)  Snopes currently lists this as false. That's a bit cut and dry considering the actual turbid tale. Snopes goes on to admit that

"...several of Clear Channel Radio's stations, compiled an advisory list of songs which stations might wish to avoid playing in the short term..."  

Perhaps in their free-wheeling dot com world they don't realize that in the corporate world... that's the same things as a ban. When you get an email from corporate making a gentle suggestion, you obey, or you seek employment elsewhere. To their credit, perhaps that wasn't the right day to play Van Halen's "Jump." Whatever. Snopes did what snopes does. Even if their verdict was dubious, they gave an honest back story. What I want to get to is  a historical precedence for this type of action. It's called self-censorship, and unless you're really dogmatic about free-speech (like me)  it makes some sense.

So let me tell you about the deaths at The Who concert on December 3, 1979. It was in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Riverfront Coliseum.  It had the highest body-count of any  rock concert incident in the United States. Eleven rock fans were crushed to death and 26 were seriously injured. the youngest was only 15. It was not a riot, or a stampede. In the mad rush to get good seats in the "festival seating" about 18,000 people tried to push to the front of the line.  Two objects things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. It's called the continuity principle of fluid dynamics. When 18,000 people try to occupy the same space at the some time some of them get compressive asphyxia (the mechanical limitation of  lung expansion.) More here.


The video above is from an actual 102.7 WEBN-FM newscast following the event. WEBN first went on air in 1967, owned by Frank Wood. (The calls previously were in Buffalo) It started as a classical and Jazz station but slowly became an AOR station, though still owned by Mr. Wood. This is important as Wood was still the owner  well into the 1980s. his son Frank Wood Jr. had moved on to WLS-FM by 1971. In the aftermath of the tragedy WEBN The book Are The Kids Alright? (1981) by John G. Fuller explained

"Frank Wood worked with WEBN staff to assure that programming remained at low key. Album selections for the next day were carefully screened. One song was quickly removed from the list. It was Led Zeppelin's Trampled Under Foot."

WEBN had been promoting the show, and maybe they felt some guilt, or remorse. Or maybe they just thought they were being considerate. Regardless, The Who continued on tour, WEBN continued broadcasting and strangely both exist today much as they did then. Today WEBN is a clear channel owned station and have have been since the Jaycor acquisition in 1999. To my knowledge, they had no air staff remaining from 1979 in 2001 to tell them about the last time they felt the need to self-censor.

The Bebop Radio Ban

Long before the harsh attacks on rock n' roll in the 1950s, there was an attack on bebop for  the same reasons. Bebop burst on the the American jazz scene from the fingertips of rebellious musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. Even other more traditional jazz musicians criticized their experiments. But in the early 1940s it was catching on with a certain audience: rebellious white teenagers; a group we now refer to historically as beatniks. (though the term 'beat' wasn't popularized until the late 1940s.)

As it did in later in the 1950s, racial mixed audiences really set off conservatives. It may seem incongruous, but the most remembered even event in this "ban" was in California. In the March 25th 1946 issue of Newsweek, Ted Steele Program Director of 710 KMPC-AM was quoted as saying "Bebop... tends to make degenerates, out of our young listeners. . . ." Time Magazine backed them up with an article that described bebop in unflattering terms "What be-bop amounts to: hot jazz overheated with overdone lyrics, full of bawdiness, references to narcotics and double talk." Ted listed a some of the "banned" songs:

1. Woody Herman - Your Father's Moustache

2. Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - (All Releases)

3. Slim Gaillard - (All Releases)

4. All versions of the song "Come For A Ride"

5. All versions of the song "Drink Hearty"

6. All versions of the song "Cement Mixer"

7. All versions of the song "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine."

You might immediately notice that not all of the above is strictly bebop. What had set Ted off was the drug references the song "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine." He was singling out for the most part Harry Gibson and Slim Gaillard. Predictably, the ban packed houses for Slim and Slam and won Gaillard an invitation to to appear on Bing Crosby's radio show.The move was wholly ineffective. Gaillard had already sold 20,000 records in Los Angeles alone. In 1938 Benny Goodman played "Flat Foot Floogie,"on the Camel Caravan program; the tune was written by Slam Stewart. the ban coalesced the jazz community in favor of bebop with Downbeat and Metronome magazines both supporting the artists.  Downbeat accused Steele of slander. Metronome was more interested in defending jazz as a whole, explaining that strictly speaking, Slim Gaillard and Charlie Parker were very different birds. Unexpectedly it was all thsi press that elevated the word "bebop" into the formal jazz lexicon. More here.

According to some sources, other stations, as many as 19 unnamed broadcasters followed suit. Different articles refer to east Coast stations that followed suit. There's also a direct reference to KFWB dropping it's land line to Billy Berg’s Rendezvous, a hot jazz night club where Harry the Hipster performed. Harry's program was mostly targeted at a black audience, but unknown to many.. he was white. In 1947 Harry released a 78 rpm platter on Musicraft "I Stay Brown All Year ‘Round / Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine."  Harry got black balled by the record industry after that. In 1951 he opened a club in Miami, and started his own label: Hip Records.

Ted wasnt' just a hater of jazz, he was also a stuffy musician who was vested in the old meme. On the West coast Steele had been a bandleader for a number of big names: Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima and Jo Stafford. Ted left town shortly thereafter and played some CBS shows with his own Orchestra. He even did one of those awful Novachord records for Decca. He and his orchestra ended up hosting the Stork Club in New York City, for the Chesterfield Supper Club on NBC. 

Things didn't work out at KMPC-AM and he left for KNX-AM in 1949. He stayed for a year then left for New York. From there he went to TV in about 1953. He also worked at WPIX-TV channel 11 doing a teen-focused dance program sponsored by Pepsi called The Ted Steele Show and another as Uncle Ted  hosting a program of silent cartoons. He must have liked TV as he also worked on WATV-TV channel 13 and WOR-TV channel 9. In that era he also was announcing at WMCA and also appearing on Cavalcade of America. In 1950 Billboard magazine said he was on air 32 hours a week, making him one of the busiest broadcasters in the city. But he fell out of favor, or burned out or something. the reasons are lost to time but a few years later he was doing a lone program on 970 WAAT-AM in Newark NJ.

CENSORED

The Encyclopedia of Radio and TV Broadcasting was printed in 1967. It was authored by none other than Robert St. John of NBC and the Career Academy School of Famous Broadcasters. The book is part history book, part reference book, and part technique manual. But both halves are very dated. The history stops with the coverage of Sputnik. The coverage of technique is fairy solid even today for news/talk but the section on Automation refers to the AP wire and tape. Most interesting was a short list under the Supervision and Ethics section:

"At certain times on certain stations in certain parts of the country the following subjects have been considered too hot to handle and a ban was in effect, at least locally, on any mention of them on the air: Astrology, Adam & Eve, Beds, Blood, Birth Control, Chiropractic, Female Legs, Father Coughlin, Family Planning, Fortune Telling, Goat Glands, Hard Liquor, Infections, Kingfish Long, Monks, Narcotics, Pregnancy, the Pope, Rabbis, Sex, Stomach, Townsend Plan, Wetbacks, WCTU.

By modern standards essentially none of these are offensive. I actually had to look some of those up. Some of the names I knew, Father Coughlin was a pro-fascist broadcaster, very radical and controversial. WCTU was the Women's Christian Temperance Union a group that crusaded for prohibition. Kingfish Long, is Huey "Kingfish"Long, the radical populist governor of New Orleans 1928-1932. Goat Glands is a reference to John Brinkley a nutty electrician that advertised the surgical implantation of goat glands into men to cure impotence.

Strangest of all was the Townsend Plan, a program considered during the great depression. Named for Dr. Francis E. Townsend, the plan would have structured a pension for unemployed senior citizens. The plan didn't pass, but was the idea that led to the social security act of 1935. The only difference between it and the plan that did pass was the source of revenue. Townsend's plan derived income from a 2% sales tax, Social Security from income the tax. I'm not sure how that was ever offensive...

Elvis Banned on xmas!

Elvis got a rough shake at radio. He was banned a few times for his hip-shaking in a time that was so uptight you'd think Jedediah Bush was president too. Thankfully Elvis overcame adversity got fat and has a successful career complete with the comeback tour. What you didn't know was that among all his trouble was that even one of his Christmas songs got banned. It was that famous year that Ed Sullivan cut off Elvis at the hips...

The hubub went down even later than you might expect. In 1957 Elvis was recording his first of several Christmas-themed releases. But it was released at the peak of Elvis's renegade status. Some stations in a fit of wholesomeness banned the album. WCFL-AM in Chicago banned all records by Elvis entirely. KMPC-AM and KEX-AM in Portland followed suit. But at KEX, DJ Al Priddy played his version of "White Christmas." anyway and was fired. In response DJ Allen Brooks of CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, played the entire LP.

The problem was that a secular and sex-crazed rock n' roller was playing sacred music. Fanning the flames was none other than Irving Berliner. Irving ran amok writing letters to radio stations. Elvis had recorded a version of his "White Christmas" a song that Berliner had written. Royalties be damned, it was too much for him to bear. I'm sure his estate has no problem depositing the checks today.

Clear Channel banned 150 songs

It's been written off as urban legend, but it really happened. In the aftermath of 9/11 Clear Channel responded by directing their 1200 radio stations to yank 150 songs.
http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2001/09/1707.cfm

What follows is a partial list of the songs deemed "lyrically questionable" by Clear Channel:
AC/DC: "Shot Down In Flames," "Highway To Hell," "Safe In New York City," "TNT"
Alien Ant Farm: "Smooth Criminal"
Armstrong, Louis: "What A Wonderful World"
Bangles: "Walk Like An Egyptian"
Barenaked Ladies: "Falling For The First Time"
Beastie Boys: "Sabotage," "Sure Shot"
Beatles: "A Day In The Life," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "Obla Di, Obla Da"
Benatar, Pat: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Black Sabbath: "War Pigs," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
Clash: "Rock the Casbah"
Dave Matthews Band: "Crash Into Me"
The Doors: "The End"
Drifters: "On Broadway"
Drowning Pool: "Bodies"
Dylan, Bob: "Knocking On Heaven's Door," "Blowin' In The Wind"
Foo Fighters: "Learn To Fly"
Godsmack: "Bad Religion"
Green Day: "Brain Stew"
Hendrix, Jimi: "Hey Joe"
Joel, Billy: "Only The Good Die Young"
John, Elton: "Benny & the Jets," "Rocket Man"
Kravitz, Lenny "Fly Away"
Led Zeppelin "Stairway To Heaven"
Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls Of Fire"
Lennon, John: "Imagine"
Limp Bizkit: "Break Stuff"
Martha & the Vandellas: "Dancing In The Streets"
McLean, Don: "American Pie"
Metallica: "Seek And Destroy," "Enter Sandman," "Fade To Black"
Morissette, Alanis: "Ironic"
Peter, Paul & Mary: "Leaving On A Jet Plane"
Tom Petty: "Free Fallin'"
Pink Floyd: "Mother," "Run Like Hell"
Queen: "Another One Bites The Dust," "Killer Queen"
Rage Against The Machine: every single song
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Aeroplane," "Under The Bridge"
REM: "It's The End Of The World As We Know It"
Rolling Stones: "Ruby Tuesday"
Ryder, Mitch and the Detroit Wheels: "Devil With The Blue Dress On"
Saliva: "Click Click Boom"
Slipknot: "Left Behind," Wait And Bleed"
Sinatra, Frank: "New York, New York"
Smashing Pumpkins: "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
Soundgarden: "Blow Up The Outside World," "Black Hole Sun"
Springsteen, Bruce "I'm On Fire," "Goin' Down"
Steam: "Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Good Bye"
Stone Temple Pilots: "Big Bang Baby," "Dead And Bloated"
Sugar Ray: "Fly"
System Of A Down: "Chop Suey"
Talking Heads: "Burning Down The House"
Third Eye Blind: "Jumper"
Tool: "Intolerance"
U2: "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
Van Halen: "Jump"

************UPDATE*************

Apparently CC is riddled with anti-American programmers

http://pajamapundits.powerblogs.com/posts/1159907711.shtml