Ridiculous Regulations
A US Federal Appeals court has only now tossed out a fine imposed on CBS by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) over the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” in the 2004 Superbowl broadcast. It was the nipple clamp revelation seen around the world although several of us who were watching the show didn’t even catch the commotion until it appeared on television and in the newspapers the next day. Nipple, shmipple, everbody’s got one or two! (With apologies to members of the Nipple-Absent Citizens of North America or NAC-NA) The broadcasting regulator had fined the network $550,000.00 over what it called the “indecent act”. Now that fine has been overturned.
Broadcasting regulations are ridiculous. I date back to the days of the CRTC’S (Canadian Radio and Television Telecommunications Commission – the Canadian version of the FCC) rule of spoken word content, where FM radio had to provide a certain number of hours of talk, essentially to bore listeners, to compensate for having a much better quality music sound than AM radio, and therefore making it more of a level playing field. And then there’s can-con, where a certain percentage of broadcast music had to be Canadian. Many of these regs eventually eased or were dropped altogether but they were a cumbersome way of radio life for most of us for a long time.
Now, the successes and failures of satellite radio stations and shows are proving that, gee, perhaps the public is smart enough to decide what it wants without being spoonfed what a bunch of bureaucrats in Ottawa think people ought to hear. Some shows survive, others don’t catch on. It’s a free marketplace. And anything goes so hosts can swear or do whatever else comes to mind but they soon find out that the novelty of that behavior doesn’t really pay off, so it tends to be sporadic or short-lived. Ratings is still the name of the game.
Recently, Q107′s knuckles were rapped by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council after someone complained their claim, “You’re never more than two minutes away from more classic rock” was untrue. The complainant timed them. Some commercial stop sets and jock talk bits went longer than two minutes and the listener apparently felt ripped off. The Council agreed but fell short of asking that person to move out of their parents’ basement and consider getting a job.
I am the subject of a current complaint to the CBSC, the details of which I won’t get into but it is even less interesting than the one launched against Q107. It’s nothing personal, I’m sure. It’s just a misguided over-reaction to a benign comment but because they took the time to properly report it, the Council has a duty to investigate. I’m not sure what will happen but it’s part of what I do. There will always be dissenters in the crowd and they have a right to speak up too. I only wish there weren’t so many darn rules to follow and avenues for complaint, because every time someone gets a hair out of place over a comment, they feel it’s their right to take on the disembodied voice on the radio.
