VT Earth Works, Inc, the 501(c)(3) non-profit which manages WVEW-lp, Brattleboro’s Community Radio Station, invites all levels of its membership, as well as interested members of the public, to WVEW’s Bi-annual Meeting (and Potluck!), to be held on Wednesday April 13th, 2016, starting at 6pm.
There will be a vote to confirm an appointment to the Board, and a vote for new Board Members. Please be aware that in order to vote you must be a currently paid-up Full Member (now $75.00/year). The meeting will include a discussion of the station’s no-tolerance policy on profanity, and whether or not to allow adult language in adult hours as permitted by the FCC’s ‘safe harbor’ regulations. (That policy allows profanity – but not obscenity – between the hours of 10pm and 6am.)
The meeting will be held in the Community Room of the Brattleboro Savings and Loan, 221 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT. To enter, please use the door which opens onto the back parking lot.
Thank You.
Lots to think about here
“The meeting will include a discussion of the station’s no-tolerance policy on profanity, and whether or not to allow adult language in adult hours as permitted by the FCC’s ‘safe harbor’ regulations. ”
Lise and I have recently returned to the airwaves via WVEW (Bubblewrap, 7-9 pm on Wednesdays!). We’ve been doing radio on and off for a long time and are well aware of the rules of the airwaves. We aim to avoid offending people, and try to do a show that just about anyone who likes a range of music would enjoy.
We search out radio-friendly mixes of songs with swears, and have created our own versions of songs we like that have the swearing reversed or bleeped out. To do this requires careful listening, word by word, through songs that are sometimes dense with lyrics.
Sometimes it is hard to tell if a word was a swear. Was that a “funk” or a “f*ck”?
Sometimes we miss something and it might slip by. It wasn’t our intention.
Much of the music I listen to has inappropriate language for a radio audience. Not that I think the audience should be protected from any of it. Quite the contrary. I’d love to play some of these songs, but radio has rules. The rules seem a bit outdated to me – so much music has adult content and “inappropriate language” these days – but the rules are there because these are the public airwaves. They belong to everyone.
I can play my language-laden songs all I want – at home, in the car, in a club that people pay to enter. But radio is public, open to all. I need to respect others with my programming choices and at the same time be given some leeway to share the music I’d like to share. It’s a deal I make with the listener, and okayed by the FCC.
…
In the rap, soul, funk, go go world of music, I run into a few words over and over that I’ve been listening to for 30 years and think of as completely normal within certain contexts.
“Go go’s not a phrase, muthaf*cka we be living’ it” is an awesome and appropriate lyric in context. It punctuates a verse with an unstoppable boast.
Another extremely fun and funky go go song from the 80’s asks the musical question “where are the (n-word)s that we f*ck with?” It’s an inner-city song celebrating various neighborhoods in DC and all the friends of the band.
“Sh*t” comes up often in rap. It is an easy rhyme for lots of other words, can imply some streetwise strength, and can be used as a way to say “…and so on.”
The other “Carlin 7 dirty words” don’t come up that much in what I listen to.
…
I’m never offended by swear words I hear when others do their shows and something slips by. A bad song, with profanity or not. would be more likely to get me to turn off the radio than any specific word used.
…
As for policy – obeying the rules is wise. Tolerating a bit of error seems healthy. Allowing for a bit of late-night latitude seems smart.
See no reason why the station shouldn't
This is a very good analysis and comment of personal experience.
And, I too see no reason why the station shouldn’t “allow adult language in adult hours as permitted by the FCC’s ‘safe harbor’ regulations.”
Hear Hear
Profanity is in the ear of the listener. There’s no reason why censorship must rule after 10pm. Kiddies shouldn’t be up that late. I don’t have to hear religious programming, right wing tinfoil bloviating or crappy music, all of which offends me. I turn the dial. The world would be a nicer place if people would stop telling everyone else what they can’t do because they’re “offended”. Don’t listen if you don’t like it. But don’t tell me I can’t just because you don’t like it.