Less-shocking jocks

A recent spate of firings and penalties among DJs paid to be crass have some believing that caution is setting in. For now.

©Associated Press
October 14, 2002

NEW YORK -- It's become a cliched formula for radio success: bad taste equals good ratings. No outrage seemed too outrageous if the Arbitron numbers were up.

Until lately.

This month, a Phoenix disc jockey was dismissed after an offensive call to the widow of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile. The firing came weeks after a pair of New York shock jocks were dumped for encouraging listeners to have sex in church.

Are the days of "anything goes" radio gone? Does FM now stand for "fire me"?

Perhaps. Radio industry veterans believe DJs are getting more cautious with their words and more aware of their actions since the crackdown on crass behavior.

"For the stations and the shows that do those kind of stunts, there certainly has been a re-examination of conscience, attitudes and guidelines," said Scott Shannon, morning show host at WPLJ-FM and one of radio's most influential programmers.

Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio, has heard the same thing in conversations with DJs.

"They're becoming more careful," Taylor said. "There's a thing in their heads, the self-censoring thing: 'Should I do that?' "

Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia kicked off this bout of broadcast introspection with an August stunt that grounded their nationally syndicated afternoon show.

The duo, based at WNEW-FM in New York, broadcast the play-by-play of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. The couple was arrested; Opie and Anthony were sent packing.

This month, Phoenix DJ Beau Duran dialed up Flynn Kile, barely three months after she buried her husband. The widow was staying at a local hotel during the Cardinals-Arizona Diamondbacks series.

"You're hot," the DJ told the mother of three. "Are you going to the game today?"

When Kile said she was, Duran asked, "Do you have a date?"

Duran ended up without a date and without a job.

There are other signs of change in the broadcasting business.

Infinity's Howard Stern, longtime king of morning drive time radio, has become so frustrated by the constant censoring of his show that he's promised to quit radio when his contract expires in three years.

The Federal Communications Commission, in the first half of this year, received 383 complaints from around the country about indecent radio broadcasts, spokeswoman Rosemarie Kimball said.

It has also fined a half-dozen stations since January for questionable material that included a rap song called "Smell My Finger" and a joke involving a baby and a butcher knife.

Stupid DJ tricks are nothing new. In 1993, a San Francisco station reached a $1.5-million settlement in a lawsuit filed by drivers stuck on a Bay Area bridge by a radio stunt. In the Tampa Bay area last year, WXTB-FM 97.9 shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem went on the air with the sounds of a wild boar being castrated and killed. He was acquitted of animal cruelty charges.

"These people understand their jobs to be creating attention," Taylor said. "And that's what they're paid to do. But they're not paid to lose their station's license and create legal problems."

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