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The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 12

Publication:
The Boston Globei
Location:
Boston, Massachusetts
Issue Date:
Page:
12
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Eock 'n' roll radio stations go raunchy and raw National Briefs Gas blast hurts 5 in Tennessee WHITE BLUFF, Tenn. -Two natural gas lines exploded in flames yesterday morning, shooting flames 200 feet into the air. The fire destroyed three houses and blackened more than 400 acres of rolling farmland, officials said. At least five people were injured, two requiring hospitalization, and more than 100 residents within a 4-square-mile area were evacuated. The cause was unknown.

(AP) Implant removal curbed some ills NEW ORLEANS -Removing silicone implants appeared to help women who began suffering from symptoms like those of rheumatic disease after having breast augmentation surgery, a physician said Saturday. The symptoms disappeared in four women and were eased in 22 others who had implants removed, Dr. Frank B. Vasey said at a seminar sponsored by the American College of Rheumatology. There was little or no change in six women who had implants removed or in 18 who kept the implants, he said.

(AP) Law students aid Haitian refugees CLEVELAND Eighteen law students are spending spring break in Florida helping Haitians fill out applications for asylum in the United States. Most of the Case Western Reserve University students left last week, after two rounds of training in Cleveland. Cheryl Little, supervising lawyer at the nonprofit Haitian Refugee Center in Miami, said her staff of three welcomes the assistance. She expects volunteer students from Yale and Harvard in coming weeks. (AP) man says.

Fox, who now handles the midday Saturday shift on WBCN-FM, admits that she leans toward the more risque on radio. "But that's my calling card," she says. "I'm very mischievous and stunt oriented. That's what I do best." She also acknowledges that she's tempered her naughtiness a bit since her days in Providence where her pranks included announcing that the city was closed down and that all workers should go home. "I guess I have toned down a bit," Fox says.

"Anybody can do what they want to, but being politically correct is very important to me. I'm actually a very sensitive thinking person and as I get older and read more, jokes about handicapped people or blacks just don't cut it anymore." Karmazin, head of Infinity Broadcasting Co. in New York, has had his share of dealings with the FCC because he is the boss of Howard Stern, who's considered one of the more outrageous jocks. Stern's drive-time morning show is based in New York and syndicated in three other cities. Broadcaster appeals fine Infinity is appealing a fine imposed by the FCC for what the com-mission ruled was an indecent Christmas party show that Stern broadcast in 1988 on three stations.

Karmazin says he's appealing the $6,000 fine because of the principle involved. "We have the guidelines, Howard has the FCC guidelines, and he tries not to be titillating or pandering," Karmazin says. "But the FCC has a bigger problem in realizing that humor is part of speech protected by the First Amendment "I've not heard anything on the radio that has shocked' me," he says. "I've been bored and entertained, but I don't know if I heard 'penis' on the radio that I would find it RADIO Continued from Page 1 talk. The Supreme Court last week made radio broadcasters cheer when it rejected a proposed 24-hour ban on indecency.

Currently, broadcast-- ers can never be obscene, but there is a so-called safe harbor from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., when stations can air adult-oriented material without being fined for indecency. So that's when most radio jocks let it rip and walk a fine line between the indecent and the obscene, between raunchy and out-and-out illegal. Some listeners laugh at what they hear; others are shocked. Some call the radio station to complain; others write letters to the Federal Communications Commission.

But, ultimately, if comments on( the radio get a reaction any reaction station managers view it as positive. Anyway, it's not as if listeners are forced to listen to anything. "That's what they make buttons on the radio for," says Mel Karmazin, head of Infinity Broadcasting which owns WBCN. Bradley Jay used to be an almost invisible man who spun records during the overnight hours on 'BCN and was heard by the smallest portion of the radio audience. Now he's moved up to the 7-to-midnight shift, and the station has unleashed him to open up the phones and rub elbows with his listeners, who are mostly men of college age and slightly older.

"Let 's talk abend cannibalism, he said one evening. "If you were in a plane crash with your family and everyone else was killed, and help was nowhere in sight, would you eat your father?" Predictably, the phones lit up. Bradley Jay also plays music and sports trivia contests, and challenges listeners to guess which celebrity they hear masturbating on a recording. His latest attention-getter was a contest for tickets to the U2 concert in Montreal. "What would you do to see U2?" he asked, leeringly.

But after a few -days he had to temper it a bit, and division of the FCC in Washington. He recently dismissed two complaints lodged by listeners against WBCN, both of which were deemed "not actionably indecent." One involved the "Lick me" phrase; the other cited references to pornographic magazines and sexual phrases. Holdberg thinks that the number of complaints against stations nationwide peaked several years ago, when independent and cable TV stations started testing the boundaries. "It probably caught a lot of people by surprise, but I think things are settling down more, and people aren't as unused to it as they were," he says. Holdberg can rattle off the names of cities with their share of radio complaints Miami, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles "but if it's any consolation, I can't remember the names of any of the morning jocks in Boston." "It's the Boob Club for says WAAF DJ Liz Wilde.

"A 100 percent natural cream cheese implant that's both edible and spreada-ble. Available in low fat, and always cholesterol free." Wilde, the evening DJ on WAAF-FM in Worcester, is not known for being subtle. But the way she sees it, "I'm into reality and sarcasm, and I call myself a humorist Some people are shocked, but to me it's rote; I'm just being myself." Boss backs DJ And her boss staunchly defends her. "I think she likes to have fun," says Bruce Mittman, the general manager of WAAF. "We target listeners who are between 18 and 34; that's their form of entertainment I don't think she goes over the line.

I find her creative." Mittman, no stranger to the racy stuff, used to own a radio station in Providence, and remembers hearing DJ Carolyn Fox on the air at an opposing station. He also remembers being more than a little surprised at times. "I think she went over the line, but hey, listeners loved her," Mitt let listeners know that running naked through Faneuil Hall Marketplace would not qualify, since the stunt had to be legal, safe, ingenious and thoughtful. One of the winners was a man who ate 104 goldfish. DJ targets men Bradley Jay gets some phone calls from women, but his target audience is men, ages 18 to 34, and his goal is to get them to turn down the television and turn up the radio.

"With TV and all, I have to get their attention," he says. "But there's a gray line, and I have to poke around" he sticks a pencil in an imaginary tent around him "as to what the community thinks is obscene." Recently, some in the community deemed Bradley Jay and Mark Par-enteau the disc jockey who is on the air just before Bradley Jay obscene and took the issue to the FCC. At issue was an interview with a woman named Alexi, who is a phone-sex operator. Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College, says she was alerted by a student who heard the routine. Dines thought the segment was exploitative of women and complained to the FCC, but was told that she needs to substantiate the complaint with a tape or transcript So students are now monitoring the station, ready to record anything they think is too outrageous.

Dines says that from what she's heard of the show, "It sounds like the mentality of a 14-year-old." Parenteau, who two years ago made the phrase "Lick me" his trademark, readily admits that he dances around that gray area where the indecent and obscene often blur. But he insists that he never quite goes over the limit. "I never go against the FCC rules," says Parenteau. But, he adds with a mischievous smile as he raises his eyebrows, "Maybe I say things that make them wish they had more rules." "Not actionably indecent" One person who deals heavily in that gray area is Roger Holdberg, a lawyer who works in the complaint At WBCN, program director Oedipus says the goal was to set Bradley Jay loose, and people seem to be responding. But he says he wouldn't classify Bradley Jay or Stern a "shock-jock." "I find them entertaining and amusing; they don't shock me," he says.

To Oedipus, rock 'n' roll radio and rowdiness go hand in hand. Making a statement "Some stations are just for background, but we're in people's faces all the time," he says. "Rock 'n' roll has a hard edge; it can't be soft. It makes a statement." Oedipus also says that he sees a large gray area, where most listeners see either black or white. "Many people have a TV cop mentality," he says.

"They think there's a very specific line between right and wrong, so the minute you cross the line, they call and write let- ters. They don't have any gray area, and we have a very large one." And even Bradley Jay has his limits. Sometimes, for example, he calls his show the Safe Sex Palace, and says that sure, he's into sex, but "I'm into monogamy. It doesn't have to be with a stranger to be good." Racist jokes are off limits; ditto for ones that make fun of AIDS or Magic Johnson. Nor does he do Kennedy jokes "I don't know why, but they're sort of like royalty around here," he says with a shrug.

Then there are the swear words. For starters, Bradley Jay implores callers not to swear. But he records a lot of calls on tape so that he can deal with profanity if he has to. "Get me a razor blade," he says to his producer, and then sits down at the reel-to-reel tape machine, cutting out most of the offensive words and splicing the tape together. Bradley Jay plays the tape back, hears only the at the start of the word and is satisfied.

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About The Boston Globe Archive

Pages Available:
4,494,044
Years Available:
1872-2024