Rick Dean
Registered
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http://amren.com/news/news04/07/07/racialjokes.html
Eric Deggans, sptimes.com, Jul. 6
Russ Rollins says it is All in the Family-style humor, an attempt to poke fun at those who would invoke racial stereotypes.
On The Monsters, the syndicated radio show he has created, those attempts at humor often include jokes that use words most radio programs avoidderogatory terms for people of color and homosexuals, such as jigaboo, spic, nigra and fag.
The Monsters, which originates in Orlando and also airs in Jacksonville and nationwide on XM Satellite Radio, has taken over the 6 a.m
to 10 a.m. spot once held by shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem on WXTB-97.9 FM (98 Rock).
Clem was fired by Clear Channel in February after incurring a record $755,000 fine for indecent spee
ch, which involves sexuality. In
early June, Clear Channel settled all indecency complaints by negotiating a $1.75-million payment with the Federal Communications Commission.
But the FCC hasn't cracked down similarly on profane speechwhich is offensive, nonsexual languageamid free speech concerns. And a Clear Channel spokesman said the company's responsible broadcast initiative, instituted in response to the indecency fines, doesn't cover racial slurs.
The instances of such language on The Monsters show include:
On March 9, the show featured a fake female voice (apparently one of the program's on-air staffers), saying, " would like to know if sometime in the near future, we can make fun of jigaboos, invoking a racial slur for black people.
On June 23, the show aired a
parody song, Mark and Greg on the Open Road, referencing the California Highway Patrol and including the lyrics: Two chocolate CHiPs is on our a/They're just monkeys with helmet hats/Their big ol'
lips
can't s
top our load/We're Mark and Greg on the open road.
The song continues with the duo seeking a spic whore: Hey, senorita, you're quite a hottie/We need a place to dump the body.
On June 29, the show featured what seemed to be a fake call from a female listener and a male companion fighting, in which the male asked, Who is this on the phone line? . . . I think it's her nigra boyfriend.
And on June 30, the show offered one of its regular features, in which one of The Monsters crew imitates Jacksonville Jaguar quarterback Byron Leftwich, who is black, playing him as a slow-witted, stereotypically venal character.
Their Byron said this about serving as a grand marshal for a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway: They say wear a jersey so everybody knows who I is.
I go out there and say, Gentlemens, crank down the engines.' . . . Then I go, like, Vroom.'
Moments later, he asks Rollins to borrow $22.49. Why? You can't buy f
ireworks with
food st
amps. I be scamming. . . . I ain't spending my money on no Kraft singles.
Rollins defended the race-based humor, calling it the Archie Bunker-type mentality . . . an example of two stupid rednecks striving to push buttons with listeners.
But later in the same interview, he added: "t's not meant to satirize. . . . It's meant to make a certain portion of the audience laugh. Your delivery truck guys and your maintenance workers . . . that's the way they talk. They consider that their reality. And we pick on rednecks and white people as much as we pick on blacks or Puerto Ricans.
The same week Clear Channel fired Clem, it instituted a zero tolerance policy for indecent content they called the Responsible Broadcasting Initiative, which involved companywide training for staffers and automatic
suspension for anyone found violating FCC indecency rules on air.
Community outrage also can make a difference. When personalities on three Clear Chan
nel radio stations encour
aged listene
rs to hit bicyclists with bottles and open car doors, bringing a deluge of criticism, company officials took action.
All three stations eventually apologized, as did Clear Channel chief executive John Hogan. The company also donated $10,000 and broadcast time for education on bicycle safety, according to the Associated Press.
But there is no similar apology planned for The Monsters' use of racial slurs. A Clear Channel spokesman said there have been no public complaints.
Dan DiLoreto, Tampa vice president and market manager for Clear Channel, refused to talk last week, hanging up the telephone in mid conversation.
"'m not going to comment on that. . . . The show originates from Orlando, said DiLoreto, who oversees the eight radio stations Clear Channel owns in the Tampa market, inclu
ding WXTB. You guys continue the witch hunt.
Clear Channel's senior vice president of corporate communications, Lisa Dollinger, didn't return p
hone calls.
Roll
ins said The Mon
sters show did stop airing a song about oral sex after the FCC fines but hasn't moderated its material regarding race. From what we've been toldand we've had many meetingsyou can still say things that are offensive, you just can't say things that are over the line when it comes to sexuality, Rollins said. You can still offend and say things that are racial. That's not under the policy at all.
According to an FCC fact sheet, both indecent and profane speech are prohibited between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on the nation's airwaves.
In the convoluted language of FCC definitions, indecent speech is language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community broadcast standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or a
ctivities.
Profane speech denote(s) certain of those personally reviling epithets naturally tending to provoke vi
olent resentment or denoting language so gros
sly offensive to mem
bers of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.
Most of the limitations that stations put on their on-air staff (are) not because of the FCC, said Orlando, the singularly named program director and morning show personality for hip-hop station WLLD-98.7 FM Wild, a competitor of The Monsters owned by Infinity Broadcasting.
Most of the time, people put limitations (on personalities) to fit their listeners' comfort and the (advertising) clients, added Orlando, who declined to comment specifically on The Monsters' work, saying he hadn't heard their shows. You can say the n-word and not get fined. But if you're making your listeners and the clients you serve uncomfortable . . . it gives you more harm than help.
Some experts say the problem in such cases remains an unwillingness by bro
adcasters to take responsibility for content beyond addressing issues that anger the public or fed
eral regulators.
Jeremy Lipschultz, a communication pr
ofessor at the Universit
y of Nebraska at Omaha who has written a book on the FCC and the First Amendment, said community reaction to racially insensitive on-air speech sometimes pushes broadcasters to suspend or fire on-air personalities before federal officials have to act.
In February 1999, Doug Greaseman Tracht was fired from Infinity-owned WARW-FM in Washington after joking, No wonder they drag them behind trucks, referring to the dragging death of James Byrd in Texas. But other shock jocks accused of racist comments, including Howard Stern and Don Imus, have not been disciplined.
"f the whole attempt of indecency regulation is to protect children from indecent messages, you have to wonder why managers would take this chance (with The Monsters), Lipschultz said. "t makes you wonder. . . . The members of Congress who have been so
concerned (about indecency), are they not going to make the same judgment about
racist speech?
Described by the Orlando Sentinel as resembling
a trailer park version of
N'Sync, The Monsters cast includes Rollins, Dirty Jim, Bubba Whoopass Wilson, Sexy Savannah, Jeff Howell, Daniel Dennis and Blackbean. The show often features its characters celebrating white rural culture, with jokes about sex, beer, pranks and partying.
Rollins started his radio career in 1993, buying time on an AM station and handling the advertising sales and promotions work. Over the years, he has guided The Monsters crew into the Orlando area's most popular morning show.
Things haven't worked out so well in Tampa yet; Arbitron ratings for listeners ages 12 and older show WXTB's average share of the 6 to 10 a.m. audience has plunged from fourth place during the winter measurement period (January to March, including Clem's last weeks on air) to 19th place over the late spring (March to May).
But Rollins is
confident The Monsters can regain Clem's audience while contendi
ng with Stern (who comes to stations in Orlando and Tampa July 19) and avoiding
FCC scrutiny.
And for t
hose who might find words such as spic and nigra offensive?
We're not trying to please everybody, and we're not trying to water it down, Rollins said. There's a portion of people that obviously it might offend . . . but there's a lot of people out there, that (such humor) cracks them up. They think it's funnier than h. And when you're trying to entertain on a wide basis, some people get it and some people don't.
http://amren.com/news/news04/07/07/racialjokes.html
Eric Deggans, sptimes.com, Jul. 6
Russ Rollins says it is All in the Family-style humor, an attempt to poke fun at those who would invoke racial stereotypes.
On The Monsters, the syndicated radio show he has created, those attempts at humor often include jokes that use words most radio programs avoidderogatory terms for people of color and homosexuals, such as jigaboo, spic, nigra and fag.
The Monsters, which originates in Orlando and also airs in Jacksonville and nationwide on XM Satellite Radio, has taken over the 6 a.m
to 10 a.m. spot once held by shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem on WXTB-97.9 FM (98 Rock).
Clem was fired by Clear Channel in February after incurring a record $755,000 fine for indecent spee
ch, which involves sexuality. In
early June, Clear Channel settled all indecency complaints by negotiating a $1.75-million payment with the Federal Communications Commission.
But the FCC hasn't cracked down similarly on profane speechwhich is offensive, nonsexual languageamid free speech concerns. And a Clear Channel spokesman said the company's responsible broadcast initiative, instituted in response to the indecency fines, doesn't cover racial slurs.
The instances of such language on The Monsters show include:
On March 9, the show featured a fake female voice (apparently one of the program's on-air staffers), saying, " would like to know if sometime in the near future, we can make fun of jigaboos, invoking a racial slur for black people.
On June 23, the show aired a
parody song, Mark and Greg on the Open Road, referencing the California Highway Patrol and including the lyrics: Two chocolate CHiPs is on our a/They're just monkeys with helmet hats/Their big ol'
lips
can't s
top our load/We're Mark and Greg on the open road.
The song continues with the duo seeking a spic whore: Hey, senorita, you're quite a hottie/We need a place to dump the body.
On June 29, the show featured what seemed to be a fake call from a female listener and a male companion fighting, in which the male asked, Who is this on the phone line? . . . I think it's her nigra boyfriend.
And on June 30, the show offered one of its regular features, in which one of The Monsters crew imitates Jacksonville Jaguar quarterback Byron Leftwich, who is black, playing him as a slow-witted, stereotypically venal character.
Their Byron said this about serving as a grand marshal for a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway: They say wear a jersey so everybody knows who I is.
I go out there and say, Gentlemens, crank down the engines.' . . . Then I go, like, Vroom.'
Moments later, he asks Rollins to borrow $22.49. Why? You can't buy f
ireworks with
food st
amps. I be scamming. . . . I ain't spending my money on no Kraft singles.
Rollins defended the race-based humor, calling it the Archie Bunker-type mentality . . . an example of two stupid rednecks striving to push buttons with listeners.
But later in the same interview, he added: "t's not meant to satirize. . . . It's meant to make a certain portion of the audience laugh. Your delivery truck guys and your maintenance workers . . . that's the way they talk. They consider that their reality. And we pick on rednecks and white people as much as we pick on blacks or Puerto Ricans.
The same week Clear Channel fired Clem, it instituted a zero tolerance policy for indecent content they called the Responsible Broadcasting Initiative, which involved companywide training for staffers and automatic
suspension for anyone found violating FCC indecency rules on air.
Community outrage also can make a difference. When personalities on three Clear Chan
nel radio stations encour
aged listene
rs to hit bicyclists with bottles and open car doors, bringing a deluge of criticism, company officials took action.
All three stations eventually apologized, as did Clear Channel chief executive John Hogan. The company also donated $10,000 and broadcast time for education on bicycle safety, according to the Associated Press.
But there is no similar apology planned for The Monsters' use of racial slurs. A Clear Channel spokesman said there have been no public complaints.
Dan DiLoreto, Tampa vice president and market manager for Clear Channel, refused to talk last week, hanging up the telephone in mid conversation.
"'m not going to comment on that. . . . The show originates from Orlando, said DiLoreto, who oversees the eight radio stations Clear Channel owns in the Tampa market, inclu
ding WXTB. You guys continue the witch hunt.
Clear Channel's senior vice president of corporate communications, Lisa Dollinger, didn't return p
hone calls.
Roll
ins said The Mon
sters show did stop airing a song about oral sex after the FCC fines but hasn't moderated its material regarding race. From what we've been toldand we've had many meetingsyou can still say things that are offensive, you just can't say things that are over the line when it comes to sexuality, Rollins said. You can still offend and say things that are racial. That's not under the policy at all.
According to an FCC fact sheet, both indecent and profane speech are prohibited between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on the nation's airwaves.
In the convoluted language of FCC definitions, indecent speech is language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community broadcast standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or a
ctivities.
Profane speech denote(s) certain of those personally reviling epithets naturally tending to provoke vi
olent resentment or denoting language so gros
sly offensive to mem
bers of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.
Most of the limitations that stations put on their on-air staff (are) not because of the FCC, said Orlando, the singularly named program director and morning show personality for hip-hop station WLLD-98.7 FM Wild, a competitor of The Monsters owned by Infinity Broadcasting.
Most of the time, people put limitations (on personalities) to fit their listeners' comfort and the (advertising) clients, added Orlando, who declined to comment specifically on The Monsters' work, saying he hadn't heard their shows. You can say the n-word and not get fined. But if you're making your listeners and the clients you serve uncomfortable . . . it gives you more harm than help.
Some experts say the problem in such cases remains an unwillingness by bro
adcasters to take responsibility for content beyond addressing issues that anger the public or fed
eral regulators.
Jeremy Lipschultz, a communication pr
ofessor at the Universit
y of Nebraska at Omaha who has written a book on the FCC and the First Amendment, said community reaction to racially insensitive on-air speech sometimes pushes broadcasters to suspend or fire on-air personalities before federal officials have to act.
In February 1999, Doug Greaseman Tracht was fired from Infinity-owned WARW-FM in Washington after joking, No wonder they drag them behind trucks, referring to the dragging death of James Byrd in Texas. But other shock jocks accused of racist comments, including Howard Stern and Don Imus, have not been disciplined.
"f the whole attempt of indecency regulation is to protect children from indecent messages, you have to wonder why managers would take this chance (with The Monsters), Lipschultz said. "t makes you wonder. . . . The members of Congress who have been so
concerned (about indecency), are they not going to make the same judgment about
racist speech?
Described by the Orlando Sentinel as resembling
a trailer park version of
N'Sync, The Monsters cast includes Rollins, Dirty Jim, Bubba Whoopass Wilson, Sexy Savannah, Jeff Howell, Daniel Dennis and Blackbean. The show often features its characters celebrating white rural culture, with jokes about sex, beer, pranks and partying.
Rollins started his radio career in 1993, buying time on an AM station and handling the advertising sales and promotions work. Over the years, he has guided The Monsters crew into the Orlando area's most popular morning show.
Things haven't worked out so well in Tampa yet; Arbitron ratings for listeners ages 12 and older show WXTB's average share of the 6 to 10 a.m. audience has plunged from fourth place during the winter measurement period (January to March, including Clem's last weeks on air) to 19th place over the late spring (March to May).
But Rollins is
confident The Monsters can regain Clem's audience while contendi
ng with Stern (who comes to stations in Orlando and Tampa July 19) and avoiding
FCC scrutiny.
And for t
hose who might find words such as spic and nigra offensive?
We're not trying to please everybody, and we're not trying to water it down, Rollins said. There's a portion of people that obviously it might offend . . . but there's a lot of people out there, that (such humor) cracks them up. They think it's funnier than h. And when you're trying to entertain on a wide basis, some people get it and some people don't.