Recent firings suggest FM radio's shock jocks have had their day
By Larry McShane
Associated Press
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 just 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 say 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 disc jockeys.
"They're becoming more careful," Taylor said. "There's a thing in their heads, the self-censoring thing: 'Should I do that?' "
That thing comes too late for some.
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 exhibitionists were arrested; Opie and Anthony were sent packing.
This month, Phoenix disc jockey 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.
"He's one of a class of guys that go over the edge," Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said. "Maybe this will restrain a few guys like that."
His feeling was shared at Infinity Broadcasting, owner of 180 radio stations in 22 states, including WNEW. Spokesman Dana McClintock said the company's August decision to yank shock jocks Opie and Anthony off the air speaks for itself.
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 has promised to quit radio when his contract expires in three years.
What's going on?
"In American culture, we're constantly deciding where the lines are," Taylor said. "Somebody is offended by just about everything."
When they are, they often reach out for the Federal Communications Commission.
The FCC, in the first half of this year, received 383 complaints from around the country about indecent radio broadcasts, said spokeswoman Rosemarie Kimball.
It has also fined a half-dozen stations since January, for questionable material that included a patently obscene rap song and a tasteless joke involving a baby and a butcher knife.
Among those fined $21,000 for three instances of indecent radio: WNEW's Opie and Anthony. Their show was canceled after the Catholic League, a 350,000-member group, called for the FCC to yank WNEW's broadcast license.
Once O&A disappeared, so did the protesters' demands for the station to forfeit its license.
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. And in 1999, Washington DJ Doug "Greaseman" Tracht was fired after a racially insensitive crack during his show.
"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."
