L.A. Performer Thrown Off the Air Over Obscenity

[rodbarnett]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A popular Asian-American radio commentator has been thrown off a Los Angeles public radio station for using a four-letter word, becoming the latest casualty in the cultural war over obscenity on the airwaves.

Commentator Sandra Tsing Loh said her use of the f-word in a prerecorded segment was an editing error but what KCRW-FM's general manager Ruth Seymour said on Thursday was that Loh made calculated use of obscenity in a politically charged time.


"It is the equivalent of the Janet Jackson (news) performance piece and there is not a radio or TV programmer today who does not understand the seriousness involved to the station," Seymour said, referring to the now infamous breast-baring halftime show for the Feb. 1 Super Bowl.

<snip>

Loh, 42, learned on Monday from Seymour that her six-year run on KCRW-FM had abruptly ended a day after the station aired her three-minute riff on a Bette Midler (news) concert she attended and in which her musician husband played.


"My husband, my soul mate, my ROOMMATE of 15 years -- he sleeps LATE, doesn't LISTEN, moves my STUFF around. But he DOES play guitar for Bette Midler on her MASSIVE new STAGE show. There are times he STANDS within five FEET of her!," the script read. "So I guess I have to f&*k him."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=638&u=/nm/20040305/en_nm/media_loh_dc_1&printer=1

[samsingh]

1. whenever people ask how the McArthy era happened

we are seeing it again. People are being made to be afraid so they can be brought in line.

Ok Liberal billionaires - start your own stations so we can end this madness.

[RandomKoolzip]

2. Okay, strapping on some heavy tin-foil....

Isn't it weird how in the last two weeks, a handful of radio personalities have been targeted by the FCC because of obscenities just "convieniently" poorly edited? I mean, Stern has a delay feature to scrub out nasty words, but he left his caller's invective in the broadcast. This woman just somehow alllowed the people in the booth to leave the word "fuck" in a broadcast?

There's something entirely too convenient about both these situations. Either Stern and Loh want to be seen as martyrs, their editors in the booth are getting careless at the worst possible time, or the planets are WAY out of alignment.

It's funny, but I don't remember THIS many obscenities "accidentally" making their way on to the airwaves BEFORE the FCC started cracking down.....

[rucky]

3. She should've been thrown off for being annoying

n/t

[Hammie]

4. Good

The station owner has a license to monopolize a certain part of the electromagnetic spectrum for private gain. That government granted monopoly is subject to certain restrictions that are clearly identified and agreed to by the licensee. The license holder is solely responsible for the operation of the station. If the station is operated contrary to the terms of the license, it is the license holder who is fined, or has his license revoked.

Whether intentional or careless, she was risking the livelihood of others with her broadcast. The station owner apparently decided that he didn't want to risk having her on the air anymore.

I'd be alto more impressed with her if she went and got her own commercial license and started broadcasting obscenities from her station.

[Baconfoot]

6. I'm sorry but I don't think the debate shouldn't move in that direction.

We should defend the "F" word and open reference to sex, not the "law".

For a woman to be able to reference sex openly in her capacity as a public persona without being fired has, it seems to me, quite a bit of "political value".

Does anyone know if anyone is organizing support for this broadcaster/Stern/Bubba?

[Hammie]

7. That isn't the point

She could reference sex by say using the word "SEX". She chose instead to use a vulgar reference to sex that is not permitted under the terms of a license held by someone else .

She got, and deserved to be, fired for betraying the trust that the license holder had that she would provide content suitable for broadcast under the terms of the license and their business relationship.

Basically it works like this: If you want to hold a gun to your head to make a point, I will think you stupid but I won't stop you. If you hold a gun to my head to make a point, be prepared for a smack-down.

[catzies]

5. That's my station. I heard it live. She told her eng. to bleep it,

but it didn't get bleeped. It was pre-taped... so I don't know how it happened... :shrug:

I read this yesterday in the LA Times; I have KCRW on all day and they never said a word but that's not unusual in radio.