Four letters spell end for WMNF disc jockey (FL)

[teach1st]

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/24/Tampabay/Four_letters_spell_en.shtml

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN, St. Petersburg Times
Published November 24, 2004

TAMPA - A DJ with a pre-dawn show on community radio station WMNF has been pulled off the air for playing profanity during his broadcast.

Norwood Orrick said he thought the songs had indecent words in their titles, but not in their lyrics. A "slip up" caused the playing of one song that contained the "f" word. Orrick, like a majority of WMNF-FM programmers, is a volunteer. He called his suspension, which is open-ended, "overly harsh."

He said he was merely mocking the Federal Communications Commission during his weekly 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. program. But station managers assert he was willfully testing the FCC.

"I find it ironic, to say the least, that WMNF, which presents itself as something of a bastion of free speech, would be so quick to suspend a programmer - hours after the show in question - based on a single alleged incident which, obviously, no one has even bothered to confirm," Orrick said.

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[ima_sinnic]

1. and so it goes with the American-style Taliban --

might as well get used to it if we're not going to rise up, resist and squash it dead.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. That sucks

WMNF is one of the best stations around. Makes you wonder why they are succumbing to this sort of intimidation? Must be the funding, follow the money. That's what happened to NPR. Now NPR should just change their name to National Propaganda Radio and at least be honest about who and what they've become. It's a real shame to see WMNF following them down the same road to self destruction.

[Ganja Ninja]

3. I used to listen to his show "Morning Wood" and it was great.

Good music and lots of anti-Bush stuff. I hope he lands on his feet.

[bones_7672]

4. You break the decades-old rule, you pay. n/t

[teach1st]

5. The decades-old rule

...has been broken all over the place. That a volunteer has to pay for one slip in the wee hours on a community station shows how powerful and feared and selective the FCC has become.