What we’re allowed to hear on the radio has been evolving and changing since the early 1900s. Each individual radio station curates its own restrictions on what types of things they can air. What keeps these restrictions on the right track? The Federal Communications Commission, otherwise known as the FCC.
The FCC never sets its own censorship restrictions on stations (first amendment reasons). Instead, it’s the stations themselves that set their own restrictions. The FCC can’t shut them down either, so if something’s aired not following their guide lines, they send out a warning letter or give out a fine. An example of this was demonstrated through the dispute between the FCC and Eminem.
Picture it: it’s the year 2000 and you’re listening to Eminem rap about Viagra, jerking it, and spitting on onion rings. These sorts of things had to be censored, but even the “clean” version was too much for the FCC. KKMG-FM station ended up getting a $7,000 fine for playing a version that they deemed, as did many other broadcasters, to be radio friendly. I would imagine this to be frightful times for stations; they didn’t know if they would be next to face the same type of wrath.
Other artists have had to deal with censorship, and often combat it by making edited versions that are more radio friendly. I was flabbergasted to learn that the Black Eyed Peas song “Let’s Get It Started” wasn’t the original version. The same can be said for CeeLo Green’s “Forget You.” I feel like I can’t mention radio censorship and not at least mention Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” Gaga herself has said there was only one station (KIIS FM) that caught on to the lyrics “P-p-p-poker face, f-f-f*** her face.” and had it censored. Kudos to her for getting away with it.
Okay now that, oh wait – I think I see a silhouetto of a man, now there’s thunderbolt and lighting, very very frightening…and Galileo? I think the British are coming, and it’s in the form of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The FCC aren’t the only ones that watch over what’s being broadcasted; the BBC also, if not more strictly, sets regulations to follow. There are a bunch of songs that have been banned throughout BBC history. An interesting one is when the song “Lola” by The Kinks was briefly banned in 1970. Despite lyrics like “Well I’m not the world’s most masculine man/But I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man/And so is Lola” and “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls”, it wasn’t banned for any reasons of gender or sexuality. What caused issues were the lyrics, “Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola.” They couldn’t say Coca Cola, which was considered to be advertising for the company, so the band re-recorded the song and replaced it with cherry cola.
The Sex Pistols experienced a complete radio ban ordered by the BBC for their song “God Save The Queen.” around 1977. With the lyrics “God save the queen/The fascist regime” and “She ain’t no human being,” it’s not a mystery as to why it was banned. It seems like most of the banning done by the BBC was either seen as somewhat rational or ludicrous, mostly the latter. “Creep” by Radiohead was literally banned for coming across as too depressing.
In the 1970s, Clear Channels Communications (now known as iheartMedia) started buying different radio stations, going on to control many aspects within the entertainment business. This control became extremely evident after 9/11 when they temporarily banned 164 songs due to their questionable lyrics. Songs like “American Pie” by Don McLean, “Highway To Hell” by AC/DC, and all Rage Against the Machine songs were banned during this time. It seems like in the past, radio regulations and censors have been a reflection of certain tragedies. For instance, the sinking of the Titanic influenced the creation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) to create scheduled broadcasting to avoid overlapping and disturbances.
What we hear on the radio seems to be a reflection of the current era. It will be interesting to see how far censorship will evolve in the future. I encourage everyone to look into a song, or even a certain group, and see if there are censored versions floating around out there; it’s a lot of fun when you find them.
Feature image by Madison Smarr through Canva
