Dirty Words On The Air

This story from Wired is about how radio stations, even music stations are expanding the use of digital delays to prevent airing anything that might be deemed inappropriate by the FCC. In fact, the four stations I work for, all of them music stations, are now using digital delays 24 hours a day.

The story though brings to mind one funny and one not so funny story about the lack of a delay on the air.

The first story is from when I was with WBIG radio, 1470 AM in Greensboro. This is back when WBIG was owned by Jefferson Pilot Broadcasting in Charlotte, which in turn was owned by Jefferson Pilot Insurance Company here in Greensboro. I'm not sure of the year, but it was probably either 1979 or 1980. We had a Saturday afternoon show called the College Football Scoreboard. The hosts of the show, Jim Pritchette and Larry Dunlap would spend about 2 hours on the air talking about that days college games and giving out the scores and info about the games. They encouraged listeners to call in and ask for scores live on the air. Did I mention we didn't have a delay?

There had always been on occasional bad word uttered by a listener on the air, but it was usually caught quickly and was nothing more than a slight nuisance that occurred once every few weeks. But for some reason, that day, listeners caught on that we didn't have a delay, that their calls were going out over the air in real time and a bunch of them decided to have some fun.

You can usually tell when a caller is going say a curse word. There is just something that you feel or hear in their voice that causes you to put your finger on the button ready to cut them off immediately. But not that day. The first incident happened when the caller got a score that indicated their favorite team had lost. Upon hearing the score, the caller uttered a quick "Sh--." Jim and Larry just cut the caller off and went on with the show pretending nothing had happened. But other listeners noticed and after that just about every other caller was uttering some sort of expletive before they could be cut off. I was over in the control room laughing my ass off. It was so funny. And there was nothing we could do about it. One caller I remember in particular called in and asked about several different games. Jim and Larry gave out the scores for him. Everything seemed to going smoothly with this caller. You could almost feel Jim and Larry start to relax. Then the caller wanted to know how the Ohio game had gone. The Ohio game? Yes, the game with the Ohio State BUCKeyes he shouted!!! Only he didn't use the "B" in Buckeyes, he used the letter "F" in place of the "B". I fell out of my chair at that point. I think I was crying. To the best of recollection, Jim and Larry took no more phone calls for the rest of the show. The next week and for the rest of the season, we created a homemade delay using two tape recorders. It sounded like crap, and after the listeners realized we were on a delay, nothing more happened.

The second incident happened when I was hosting a show at WMFR Radio, and was before we had gotten our delay. In fact, I had been begging them to get us one but they were very expensive items at that time and besides, what could happen in High Point? As it turned out, a lot.

I was interviewing the Guilford County District Attorney about a murder case which had sparked a great deal of local interest. I can't remember any of the names of the people in the case, but in involved a High Point Furniture executive who had murdered his wife with arsenic. The poisoning had taken place over a long period of time and the wife had suffered terribly. The case had generated a great deal of interest because there were allegations of adultery and sex among high profile furniture executives. The woman's doctor if I remember correctly was Steve Arnolds father and back then, anytime Steves name cropped up in a story, it generated a lot of local interest, even if, as in this case, he had absolutely no connection to it. People all over High Point were looking forward to the trial when all of this dirty laundry would come out in the open. But then, the accused husband surprised everyone and before the trial could start, pleaded guilty. Oh the horrors. Now we would never know who was sleeping with who. To say that everyone was disappointed would be an understatement.

So now this brings us to the live on air interview. The Guilford County DA was on the phone, not in the studio, and it scheduled to be just a short interview. Maybe 15 minutes or less. After all, there wasn't a lot to discuss since the perp had copped a guilty plea. Did I mention we didn't have a delay?

I had pretty much completed the interview and gone through all my questions. A few callers had called in and asked questions. I was going to take just one more call and then end the interview. I don't even remember the question the caller asked. All I remember is that just before she hung up, she said, "Well everyone in town knows that he (meaning the husband) was having an affair with...."!

The name of the woman she mentioned came out over the air loud and clear. I am not going to print the name here. But suffice it to say, this woman was (and I guess still is) a very well known woman in the community. Well known for her family and well known for her position in the furniture industry.

I quickly cut the woman off and then ended the interview with the DA. He never mentioned anything in the final moments of the interview about the call. We both just ignored it.

I continued with my show without taking any more phone calls. Since I didn't have a delay I wasn't about to allow callers to discuss this.

As soon as my show was over with, I took off my headphones and leaned back in the chair. The intercom rang on the phone. It was the receptionist in the station telling me that I had a visitor in the lobby. I asked her who it was and she said it was the attorney for the woman whose name had been mentioned on the air. Oh great. I called the station manager and told him who was in the station and that I wanted him to be in on the meeting.

The attorney was actually very nice and was not interested in suing me or the station about anything. Not that he could have, but he didn't threaten anything. Both I and the station manager apologized for airing the woman's name and the allegations against her and explained that it was not our intention for that to happen. The attorney said that all his client would like is for me to go on the air the next day and interview a police officer who had been a part of the murder investigation. That police officer would state that there was no truth to the allegation that the woman had had an affair with the murderer. I explained that this might actually draw more attention to the allegation. I told him that it been a very brief moment on the show and might have actually gone unheard by a large number of the listeners. But he would have none of that. He wanted this to be brought up again the next day and include the interview with the police. So we agreed to do it. To be honest, I was very happy. This was going to draw a lot of listeners.

So the next day, we did the interview and of course the police officer said all the right things. How there was no truth to the allegation of the affair and it was all just a lie.

Post Script:
Now, I have no way of knowing one way or the other. But a few days later, I was told by someone I trust, someone who is now deceased but at that time had a lot of connections in the community, that I had been lied to. Whether that is the case or not, I don't really know.