GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS ON RADIO BROADCASTING :: essays research papers

     In 1978 a radio direct owned by Pacifica Foundation Broadcasting egress 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 include "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 " icky Words" by comedian GeorgeCarlin. The introduction of Carlins "routine" consisted of, according toCarlin, " linguistic process you couldnt say on the public air waves."(Carlin, 1977) Theintroduction to Carlins monologue listed those lecture and repeated them in avariety of colloquialismsI was thinking around the curse words and the swear words, the cuss words andthe words that you placet say, that youre not supposed to say all the tim e.I was thinking one dark about the words you couldnt say on the public, ah,airwaves, um, the ones you definitely wouldnt say, ever. Bastard you cansay, 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 twist around your spine, grow hair on your hands and maybe, even bring us, god help us, peace without honor, and a bourbon. (Carlin, 1977)     A man driving with his adolescent son heard this broadcast and reported it to theFederal Communications billing FCC. This broadcast of Carlins "FilthyWords" monologue caused one of the greatest and near controversial faces 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 consecrate 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.       in the lead this case occurred there were trustworthy laws already in place that interdict obscenity over radio. One of these laws was the "law ofnuisance". This law " largely speaks to channeling behavior more thanactually prohibiting it."(Simones, 1995) The law in essence meant that authoritative words depicting a sexual nature were limited to certain times of the