Howard Stern's Show is Suspended... AMEN!

[My2Sense]

Well, what do ya know. We can thank Janet Jackson partially for this. Thank you Janet.

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U.S. Government - AP
Clear Channel Suspends Stern's Radio Show

17 minutes ago

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By JONATHAN D. SALANT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest radio station chain announced Wednesday it was suspending shock jock Howard Stern's show after issuing new rules to limit indecency and address criticism of what airs on television and radio.


AP Photo

Reuters

Slideshow: Clear Channel Suspends Stern's Radio Show
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 <br>
Clear Channel Radio said it suspended broadcast of Stern's show after assessing the content of his show Tuesday.


"Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern's show blew right through it," John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, said in a news release. "It was vulgar, offensive, and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency."


Hogan said the show would not air on Clear Channel stations until officials are assured it will conform to acceptable broadcasting standards.


Attempts to reach Stern's spokesman for comment late Wednesday were unsuccessful.


Under pressure from regulators and lawmakers, some TV networks are delaying live broadcasts to delete offensive material and doing more to let parents know how they can block specific programs. The National Association of Broadcasters says it will hold a conference on indecency next month.


The rules issued by Clear Channel Communications came on the eve of the second congressional hearing this month on broadcast indecency. Hogan is scheduled to testify along with top officials from TV networks.


Congress is considering increasing the maximum fine for indecency from $27,500 to $275,000, a move that the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) endorsed even before the tumult over singer Janet Jackson's exposed breast during the nationally televised Super Bowl halftime show.


"In the history of broadcast indecency, there have been these moments where it makes headlines," said Jeremy Lipschultz, a professor of communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. "In the short term, broadcasters become much more careful. You're going to see people playing it safe. The long-term problem is the same one we've had, which is it's very difficult in the end to precisely define what is indecent or not. "


Under FCC (news - web sites) rules and federal law, radio stations and over-the-air television channels cannot air material containing references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children may be tuning in. The rules do not apply to cable and satellite channels and satellite radio.


Responding to an FCC query, CBS, NBC and Fox said they would run advertisements promoting the V-chip — technology built into a TV set to prevent children from watching certain shows — air live programs on time delays and remind affiliate stations that they can reject network programs unsuitable for their communities. ABC had yet to respond.


Clear Channel's new policy includes companywide training about indecency, possible fines against DJs, and automatic suspensions for anyone accused by the FCC of violating indecency rules on the air, company officials said.


The initiative came one day after the company fired the DJ known as "Bubba the Love Sponge," whose show drew an FCC-record fine of $755,000. The program aired in four Florida cities and included graphic discussions about sex and drugs "designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners," the FCC said.


"Clear Channel is serious about helping address the rising tide of indecency on the airwaves," said Mark Mays, president and chief operating officer. "As broadcast licensees, we are fully responsible for what our stations air, and we intend to make sure all our DJs and programmers understand what is and what is not appropriate."


Mel Karmazin, president of Viacom Inc., discussed indecency issues during a conference call last week with officials and station managers of the company's Infinity Broadcasting radio subsidiary. Infinity, which owns 120 stations, asked them to increase efforts to avoid indecent programming, such as using a seven-second delay on shows with live talk, spokesman Dana McClintock said.


Infinity, owned by Viacom, in 1995 paid the largest cumulative fine to date, $1.7 million, for various violations by Stern.


___

 <br>

Associated Press writer Seth Sutel in New York contributed to this report.

__

On the Net:

Federal Communications Commission indecency page: www.fcc.gov/parents/content.html

Clear Channel Communications: www.clearchannel.com

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

So, someone has been forcing you to listen to Howard Stern's radio show every day and now you will finally be free of it?

[Barefoot In Kailua]

Hey, I agree with Pablo!

Some of us enjoyed the show.

[Deleted]

We have a local show here, not as bad as Stern, but incredibly vulgar. I have often been forced to listen to it. Simply because that was what my co-workers wanted to listen to.

Yes, KQ and Tom Barnyard.

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Barefoot said:

Hey, I agree with Pablo!

Some of us enjoyed the show.

Hey, let's not go overboard.

I never said I liked the show. In fact, I never have even listened to it (not on in my area, that I know). But that is basically the point. Even if it were on here, I wouldn't be listening to it.

And Ruffda, get some earmuffs.

[just...theDH]

Yeah, you know what? I am so sick of people in this country thinking they have to police the whole world based on their beliefs. If you think a show is too vulgar, CHANGE the CHANNEL. I never really liked Howard Stern, but that made me NOT put him on my radio. Look all you morons, if you don't like something, DON'T listen to it. If you think a show is too vulgar, DON'T watch it. If you think a band is in bad taste, DON'T buy their CD.

Clear Channel dropped Howard Stern, but here in Los Angeles he is continuing to be played on KLOS which is where he has been for like 10 years. Why wasn't he banned in LA? Maybe because people here understand that there is a reason radios have hundreds of frequencies and cars have 12 presets.

[Charlie]

theMAN, said:

Yeah, you know what? I am so sick of people in this country thinking they have to police the whole world based on their beliefs. If you think a show is too vulgar, CHANGE the CHANNEL.

So, you would advocate that it is OK to show on public TV a child being forced to have sex with an adult? Just change the channel, right?

Of course no one will say that something like this should be allowed.

My point is that some things will be banned. Now you are just arguing about where to draw the line.

[just...theDH]

Charlie said:

So, you would advocate that it is OK to show on public TV a child being forced to have sex with an adult? Just change the channel, right?

Of course no one will say that something like this should be allowed.

My point is that some things will be banned. Now you are just arguing about where to draw the line.

Sex between children and adults is illegal, therefore it shouldn't appear anywhere, let alone on television.

I suppose you are just trying to prove the opposite point for the sake of argument, but I think you know what I mean.

Have you been to Canada? They are much more forgiving on television and radio, and you don't see their country being flushed down the drain. In fact, they have far lower crime rates than our country and it is arguably a more "homey" nation.

[FloridaPerson]

I wish the reason it was yanked was because there weren't enough people out there stupid enough to want to listen. Then everyone would win.

[My2Sense]

People who call other people morons for expressing their God given right to express their own beliefs need to re-evaluate their own attitudes toward free speach.

Today's world allows a lot of indecent material to be seen by impressionable young people, at very young ages. Nearly everyone has cable tv nowadays. The Stern show is not just on radio, but on cable tv, and not on paid premium channels. A parent goes out at night, can't police what the kids watch, maybe doesn't even know the show is on, and the kids turn it on and watch everything from porno stars sticking whatevers up their privates, to simulated sex, to farting in faces for fun, to everything else a decent person holds sacred.

There is a need to protect children from their own ability to access filth. If there's a place for Stern's right to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, it's not in a situation where anyone at any age at any time can have access to it. The morals of this country are in a downward spiral. Personally, I'm thanking Janet Jackson for going over the line to wake up those in power who can do something about it. When some of you who think his kind of show is OK, and one day have kids and you try to raise them properly and realize that it's gotten impossible to keep the worst kinds of immoral and obscene material away from them, especially at early ages, you too might wake up and realize something needs to be done to keep this and many other forms of this out of the faces of your children. You get to the point where you feel helpless. Have you seen the lyrics of a great deal of popular music today?

This is an article today about the probable fate of Stern's show.

Stern Believes Radio Reign Coming to End

NEW YORK - Shock jock and self-proclaimed "King of All Media" Howard Stern believes his reign on the radio is coming to an end. "The show is over," he announced Friday morning on his nationally syndicated radio program. "It's over."

It's not — at least not yet. But Stern predicted that a Federal Communications Communication crackdown on indecency on the airwaves will force his salacious show off the dial.

"I'm guessing that sometime next week will be my last show on this station," said Stern, adding that he expected the FCC (news - web sites) to hit him with a whopping indecency fine. "There's a cultural war going on. The religious right is winning. We're losing."

A telephone call to Infinity Broadcasting, which syndicates Stern's show, was not returned Saturday to discuss Stern's comments.

On Friday, Stern devoted the first 2 1/2 hours of his show to his anticipated demise, a change of pace from the usual fare of naked women and toilet humor.

Clear Channel Communications yanked Stern from stations in San Diego, Pittsburgh, Rochester, N.Y., Louisville, Ky., and Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 25. The company said the suspension would last until the Stern show met its programming guidelines.

"This time they have to fire me," Stern said. "I'm through. I'm a dead man walking."

On Thursday, Clear Channel paid a record $755,000 fine levied last month by the FCC for indecent material aired by several of its stations.

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

My2Sense said:

People who call other people morons for expressing their God given right to express their own beliefs need to re-evaluate their own attitudes toward free speach.

Oh cry.

Today's world allows a lot of indecent material to be seen by impressionable young people, at very young ages. Nearly everyone has cable tv nowadays. The Stern show is not just on radio, but on cable tv, and not on paid premium channels. A parent goes out at night, can't police what the kids watch, maybe doesn't even know the show is on, and the kids turn it on and watch everything from porno stars sticking whatevers up their privates, to simulated sex, to farting in faces for fun, to everything else a decent person holds sacred.

You know, for someone who acts all offended by such programming, you seem to know an awful lot about it.

You said it yourself: the parent goes out at night, leaving the kids to watch what they want. And then, it is the TV's fault.

If they can't trust the kids to do what's right, then hire a friggin sitter. Or, heaven forbid, don't go out and spend some time supervising your kid's activities. In the words of the great one, "Parents, spend some time with your young person today."

There is a need to protect children from their own ability to access filth. If there's a place for Stern's right to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, it's not in a situation where anyone at any age at any time can have access to it.

Let's see, Stern's TV show is on, I think, at 11 pm eastern time. His radio show is on in the morning when kids are at school. Exactly _how_ is that when "anyone at any age at any time can have access to it"? You are just making this stuff up, and hoping that someone falls for it.

The morals of this country are in a downward spiral.

Wasn't it Aristotle who claimed that the morals were going downhill and that the youth of the day had no respect for authority?

[Psychopotamus]

Wow, I agree with Pablo. Really, if you can't teach your children ideals and what is right and wrong, don't blame an inanimate object. There are a lot of things children shouldn't see until they are ready, but it isn't up to the government to draw that line.

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

OrFiF said:

Wow, I agree with Pablo. Really, if you can't teach your children ideals and what is right and wrong, don't blame an inanimate object. There are a lot of things children shouldn't see until they are ready, but it isn't up to the government to draw that line.

Moreover, if you are going to complain about anything, start with the ones that really can get in the way. Friends and Seinfeld reruns are shown before dinner, even, including all the sexual innuendo.

I don't see the FCC going after them. They are taking the easy route, without actually doing anything to address the problem they claim to be trying to combat.

[Psychopotamus]

LOL. Okay now you've lost me. But I do think that if you're (we're?) policing the airways, violence is a much bigger issue than sex. As history has shown us, the liberal sex countrys are a whole lot better off than the countrys who like to show violence.

Howard Stern is somewhat of an evil in my mind (I personally don't care for the man), but a much lesser evil. I like my right to be able to watch him if I want, or to choose not to. I don't know if there is anything in particular that caused this ban, but whatever it may be, I know that there are far more valiant battles that could have been fought. I think this is the FCC flashing their muscle.

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

OrFiF said:

LOL. Okay now you've lost me. But I do think that if you're (we're?) policing the airways, violence is a much bigger issue than sex. As history has shown us, the liberal sex countrys are a whole lot better off than the countrys who like to show violence.

Yep, there is always the issue of violence, which is consistent with my point, that when you look at the big pic, Stern is of little concern compared to other issues out there (even in the same concept)

Howard Stern is somewhat of an evil in my mind (I personally don't care for the man), but a much lesser evil.

A bigger question is whether Stern is a cause or a symptom. Personally, I don't think he contributes at all to the "moral decay." He just reflects the changes in attitudes of the people.