GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS ON RADIO BROADCASTING :: essays research papers

     In 1978 a radio station owned by Pacifica Foundation Broadcasting out of NewYork City was doing a program on contemporary attitudes toward the use oflanguage. This broadcast occurred on a mid-afternoon weekday. Immediatelybefore the broadcast the station announced a disclaimer telling listenersthat the program would embarrass "sensitive language which might be regarded asoffensive to some."(Gunther, 1991) As a part of the program the stationdecided to air a 12 minute monologue called "Filthy row" by comedian GeorgeCarlin. The mental hospital of Carlins "routine" consisted of, according toCarlin, " speech communication you couldnt say on the public air waves."(Carlin, 1977) Theintroduction to Carlins monologue listed those words and repeated them in avariety of colloquialismsI was thinking about the curse words and the swear words, the cuss words andthe words that you merchantmant say, that youre not supposed to say all the time.I was thinking one night about the words you couldnt say on the public, ah,airwaves, um, the ones you definitely wouldnt say, ever. Bastard you pratsay, and hell and damn so I have to figure out which ones you couldnt andever and it came down to seven but the list is open to amendment, and infact, has been changed, uh, by now. The original seven words were shit,piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Those are the onesthat will curve your spine, grow hair on your hands and maybe, even bring us,God help us, quietude without honor, and a bourbon. (Carlin, 1977)     A man driving with his young son controld this broadcast and reported it to theFederal Communications Commission FCC. This broadcast of Carlins "FilthyWords" monologue caused one of the greatest and most controversial cases inthe history of broadcasting. The case of the FCC v. Pacifica Foundation.The outcome of this case has had a lasting effect on what we hear on theradio.           This landmark case gave the FCC the "power to regulate radio broadcasts thatare indecent but not obscene." (Gunther, 1991) What does that mean, exactly?According to the government it means that the FCC can only regulatebroadcasts. They can not censor broadcasts, that is determine what isoffensive in the matters of speech.      Before this case occurred there were genuine laws already in locating thatprohibited obscenity over radio. One of these laws was the "law ofnuisance". This law "generally speaks to channeling behavior more thanactually prohibiting it."(Simones, 1995) The law in essence meant thatcertain words depicting a sexual nature were limited to certain times of the