shock jock

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Shock jock is a slang term used to describe a type of any radio broadcaster (sometimes a disc jockey) who attracts attention using humor that a significant portion of the listening audience may find offensive. The term is usually used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms, statements and actions are typically offensive to many listeners. It is a general-media term, rarely or never used within the radio industry.

Background

The idea of an entertainer who breaks taboos or adopts a career role in the realm of the frequently offensive is not a new one. Despite insistences of decency activists, there are few eras of history in which there have not existed blue comedians; notoriously offensive performers (Petronius, Benny Bell, Le Pétomane, Redd Foxx and Lenny Bruce for example). Shock jocks are believed to have appeared in the American radio scene since the 1970s.

Shock jocks also tend to push the envelope of decency in their market, and may appear to show a lack of regard for communications regulations (e.g. FCC rules in the U.S.) regarding content. But nearly all American broadcasters have strict policies against content that is likely to draw indecency forfeitures, and air personalities are often contractually obligated to avoid broadcasting such content. Indecency fines are, in fact, rarely issued by U.S. regulators—no broadcaster has been issued a forfeiture for indecent content since 2003, although several earlier cases are in appeals court.

Popular envelope-pushing areas for shock jocks include sexual (especially kinky) and/or scatalogical (toilet humour) topics, or just unabashed innuendo.

Many shock jocks have been fired as a result of such punishments as regulatory fines, loss of advertisers, or simply social and political outrage. On the other hand, it is also not uncommon for such broadcasters to be quickly re-hired by another station or network.

Shock jocks in the United States have been censored under additional pressure from the United States government since the introduction of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, which increased the fines on radio stations for violating decency guidelines by nearly 20 times.^{[citation needed]}

Notable incidents

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• February 1974: Larry Lujack of WCFL Chicago responded to a fan's letter on-air by stating he'd play more Jim Croce records "when Croce goes back into the studio and makes some more." (Croce had died in a Louisiana plane crash five months earlier.) The resulting protests from Croce fans led to an apology and an on-air admission by a Lujack a few days later that the statement was inappropriate.
• July 12, 1979: WLUP Chicago disc jockeys Steve Dahl and Garry Meier staged "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park between games of a scheduled Chicago White Sox-Detroit Tigers double-header. Fans were granted admittance to the games for 98 cents if they also donated unwanted disco records to be blown up at Comiskey's second base during the event. After the records were blown up, fans spilled onto the playing field and rioted, causing the White Sox to forfeit the scheduled second game.
• October 1993: Matthew "Mancow" Muller made national headlines while working for radio station KYLD in San Francisco, California. At the time, a story had been circulated that President Clinton had tied up traffic on an LAX runway for over an hour because of a haircut on Air Force One. Mancow staged a parody of this incident on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during rush hour, using vans to block the westbound lanes of the bridge, while his sidekick Jesus "Chuy" Gomez got a haircut. Muller was convicted of a felony by a San Francisco Municipal Court and sentenced to three years probation, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and fined $500, while KYLD settled a lawsuit filed by a bridge commuter for $1.5 million.
• April 1995: On the Don Imus radio show, US Senator Al D'Amato put on a comical Asian accent and criticized judge Lance Ito for personal interest in allowing television cameras in the O.J. Simpson murder trial; Imus was criticized for keeping D'Amato on air because of the shock value of the senator's comments.
• February 27, 2001: Bubba the Love Sponge had a pig castrated and killed on the air. Bubba was charged with animal cruelty, but was acquitted.
• August 16, 2002: Opie and Anthony sponsored a contest where the goal was to have sex in notable public places, called Sex For Sam. The contest went without a major outcry until Sex for Sam 3 after a couple had sex in a vestibule at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The resulting controversy led to Infinity Broadcasting cancelling the Opie and Anthony Show. Infinity was fined $357,500 USD for the incident.
• April 8, 2004: Howard Stern's show was cancelled by Clear Channel Communications after they were fined $495,000 USD for a number of statements made during a Stern show.^{[citation needed]} Stern later used his remaining market share to criticize Clear Channel and the Bush Administration, and left the public airwaves to move to satellite radio, which is not subject to the same FCC decency regulations.
• April 9, 2004: The Regular Guys of WKLS 96 Rock in Atlanta, Georgia were fired after a graphic interview with porn movie actress Devin Lane was accidentally aired over a Honda commercial. That interview was intended to be played backwards when they returned from the break, mocking the FCC indecency crackdown at the time.
• May 12, 2004: Portland, Oregon disk jockeys Marconi and Tiny played the audio portion of the video of Nick Berg's murder on their morning program several times, accompanied by music, jokes, and laughter over the scenes. The pair were fired on the same day.
• April 4, 2007: Don Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" on his morning radio show. On April 9, MSNBC and CBS Radio suspended Imus from his radio and television shows for two weeks, and MSNBC canceled its simulcast of "Imus in the Morning" on April 11; Imus was fired from CBS Radio the following day.
• May 15, 2007: XM suspended Opie and Anthony for 30 days after a homeless man making a guest appearance described how he would like to have a threesome with the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush, and abused Queen Elizabeth II.
• October 18, 2008: (UK) BBC Radio 2 host Russell Brand Resigned after calling Fawlty Towers' Andrew Sachs and leaving an answering machine message claiming that he had had sex with his granddaughter.
• July 29, 2009: On his morning breakfast radio show, Australian DJ Kyle Sandilands provoked outrage when his "Lie Detector" segment featured a 14 year old girl who, when quizzed on her sexual history by her mother, broke down, revealing she had been raped at the age of 12. Kyle then blew this off saying her mother meant any intercourse other than rape. The show was suspended for one week.^[1] Sandilands provoked further outrage three days after his suspension expired when he made a slur about Jenny Craig ambassador Magda Szubanski, saying she could have lost more weight in a concentration camp. Sandilands was suspended for ten days without pay, and after a review on September 18, had his suspension extended by three weeks. Sandilands returned to air on October 8, apologized for the incident, and was blessed by a priest at the start of the show.

References

External links

• Australia Shock as Kyle Sandilands Quizzes 14-year-old Rape Victim On Air July 29, 2009
• Shock Jocks Fired For Sex In St. Pats Stunt
• 'Shock Jocks' Have a Problem, "Voice Of America", July 24, 2006
• 'Britney Death Hoax Fools Fans' June 12, 2001
• 'DJs Fired in Wake of Britney Spears Hoax' June 20, 2001