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Talk radio standards evolve over time

Radio personalities adjust to meet changing community standards and views.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published April 13, 2007

TAMPA - Not too long ago, radio hosts tossed around questionable verbal grenades with abandon. But the Imus story has been a case study of just how far the listener landscape has shifted.

The Internet and a 24-hour cable news cycle have turned talk radio, a medium where comments used to evaporate, into something with a lasting record.

Todd "MJ" Schnitt, who has two Tampa-based talk shows, said deejays need to be constantly aware of changing community standards and public perception.

"I'm a student of life," he said. "I watch everything. I'd like to believe I maintain that mechanism of what to say and what I don't say."

Public awareness, he said, took a turn after Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction," which led to heightened government scrutiny.

Brad James, vice president of Genesis Communications, which owns Tampa Bay news and sports talk radio stations, said his hosts know what lines not to cross. He said he was surprised the "liberal" media attacked Imus, a "liberal" host, with such ferocity.

"I think we have each other under a microscope now," said James, who acknowledged ABC and FOX news shows on his own stations can share blame in propelling the story.

"Anytime there's something that's conceived as racial," James said, "obviously the media picks up on it quickly and brings it to the forefront."

What Imus said was wrong, but it wasn't mean-spirited, James said, and he apologized for it.

"Sensitivity is still great as it ever was, and I think everybody is responsible for what they say on the air," James said. "At the same time, too, people need to take what's said in context and they need to understand what the spirit is of what's being said."

Rob Lorei, WMNF community radio news and public affairs director, found several reasons the Imus story steamrolled.

Imus attacked female college students who had just played for a national championship. The 24-hour cable news channels replayed the remark over and over. Comments once heard only by die-hard listeners were immortalized on the Internet.

Listeners feel more empowered, and he said hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and local shock jock types should take note.

"The message it sends to local people in radio: Don't expect that there will be just members of your club listening," he said.

Justin George can be reached at 813 226-3368 or jgeorge@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 13, 2007, 01:33:41]