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Monday, January 17, 2011
"MONEY FOR NOTHING" UPDATE
Q104 Continues To Play Controversial Rock Song Unedited
Halifax NS from Jayme Lynn Butt
At Q104 Radio, freedom of expression rules the day. Tonight, the “Mighty Q” will air Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” non-stop and unedited for a full
hour, between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. The “Money For Nothing Marathon” comes as a response to a recent decision by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
(CBSC) declaring that the airing of an unedited version of the recording contravenes the Human Rights clauses of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’
(CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code.
Q104 Program Director, J.C. Douglas will be hosting this one hour protest of the CBSC decision. “I think it’s important to register our concern with their
conclusion and the precedent it sets.” J.C. will be joined by influential members of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community in supporting
the freedom of artistic integrity. “Context is everything in this case,” says Douglas. “We believe that this decision may trivialize the meaningful work
done to further the cause of the LGBT community and could actually work against them, by creating a sense of excessive political correctness at the cost
of the fundamental freedom of speech.”
The CBSC is a self-regulating body comprised of broadcasters which adjudicate complaints from radio listeners and television viewers. The particular complaint
regarding “Money For Nothing” was made to St. John’s radio station, OZ-FM. A listener complained that the song contains three instances of the word “faggot”
and is thus discriminatory to gays. The radio station argued that since the song has been played countless times over the last quarter century and been
honoured with many industry awards without garnering any appreciable number of complaints, it should be deemed acceptable. Q104 agrees with that. Our programming
should be judged on the basis of whether it meets community standards, and when a song has played for 25 years without incident, it meets community standards.
But more importantly, J.C. Douglas adds, is the freedom of expression. “At the same time as an American publisher is considering removing the N-word from
Huckleberry Finn, we’re being told we can’t play this classic piece of music without sanitizing it for the public’s protection.” Says Douglas, “The song
is clearly a satirical look at a workaday appliance delivery guy who’s envious of the millions being made by pop stars who might at worst suffer a blister
from their guitar strings. As he rails on about the misogynistic, big-haired rockers of the 80s, he unleashes the ‘other F-word’ a few times. To me, the
character that the songwriters drew is reminiscent of Archie Bunker, one of the great fictional characters of our time, and one who illustrated how completely
absurd a bigot can be. To deny radio the right to reveal that character, warts and all, is a tragic error in judgment and puts the CBSC on the slippery
slope to censorship.”
BANNERS/vte_anim
BANNERS/gmbanner
Mountain FM / JET FM Drop Money For Nothing
Castlegar BC from Drex
Classic Rock stations Mountain FM & 98.9 Jet FM have made the decision that if we can’t play the unedited version, we wont be playing any version, both
of our stations have policies of not playing edited versions of songs EVER.
K-ROCK Charlottetown Listeners Vote 97% In Favour Of Playing Full Version Of Money For Nothing
Charlottetown PEI from Kate Buick
K-ROCK 105.5 in Charlottetown, PEI, played the original version of “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits after polling listeners via krock1055.com. At 9pm
on January 14, 2011, K-ROCK played the album cut of the 1985 classic after listeners flooded the station with calls of support and listeners voted online
in a website poll. 97% of those polled by krock1055.com wanted the original version to play.
Program Director Catharine Buick says
“ K-ROCK stands by what our listeners want. An overwhelming majority believe in the artistic merit of this song, and K-ROCK is also taking that stance.
K-ROCK 105.5 respects the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, but this decision to ban a “word” sets a dangerous precedent. Without an appeals process,
this is the only way K-ROCK can make sure the voices of our listeners are heard. K-ROCK is standing behind those who feel as if the decision by the CBSC
is out of touch and outdated. Our listeners understand the context of the word in the song and agree that it should continue to play on Canadian radio.”
The fact that K97, Q104 and K-rock are owned by the same company I'm sure has nothing to do with this.
Visit the site these stories came from by clicking the link above.
Labels: radio
Money for Nothing, PC For Free: Canada Bans Dire Straits Classic**Written by Doug Powers
This will no doubt perk up some ears over at FCC headquarters in Washington — I can’t believe this one’s slipped by them (and it has because I heard the song on the radio recently in its “original form” ::gasp::).
From The Spec by way of Reason:
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has ruled that Dire Straits’ 1980s hit Money for Nothing is too offensive for Canadian radio.The song was released 25 years ago. The CBSC would have taken action sooner but the shipment of Brothers in Arms just recently arrived up there (snow’s been a bear the past decade and a half).
The ruling, released Wednesday, was in response to a complaint against St. John’s radio station CHOZ-FM. The listener complained that the word faggot – which appears three times in the song is “extremely offensive” to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
The council is an independent body created by Canadian radio and television broadcasters to review the standards of their content.
The original version has been banned, but it can be played provided the offending word is edited. I’d suggest that Canadian radio stations who are upset with this decision have a little fun with it and overdub that section of the song with a tribute to political correctness. “That little bureaucrat got his own jet airplane — that little bureaucrat he’s a millionaire.”
Starting at 8 p.m. tonight, K97 in Edmonton will defy the order and play the song unedited for 24 hours in protest:
“We’re not afraid of repercussions. We have never had a complaint in the 25 years we have played the song,” K97 Music Director Todd James told FOX411. “We will play it in its entirety and unedited as we have always done and if someone wants to file a complaint we will take it from there.”For a second there I was thought we might be looking at a full-blown DJ rebellion — a sequel of sorts to the 1978 film “FM” (which the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is just getting around to seeing) — but probably not.
But K97 may be alone.
Most Canadian radio stations that play rock music have been bombarded with phone calls from listeners unhappy about the ban of the quarter-century old Dire Straits hit— still, despite the many complaints, the majority of stations don’t plan to break the rules and broadcast the forbidden tune like the Edmonton station.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Trackbacks
- Quick Post; Dire Straits Censored in Canada « Northern Thoughts And Reflections
- GayPatriot » Dire Straits: Offensive to Gays?
Comments
Jan 13
Dire Straights ‘Money for Nothing’ Banned in Canada
ByI wonder if the US Military will ban it next?
I want to thank Stacy McCain for bringing this to my attention. I’m tired and was in a terrible mood until I heard “I want my MTV” and went back, for just a moment, to the good old days of big hair and black tights. I feel better now.
Related posts:
The genius of OUR system isn’t the perfection of it, but that they knew that less government was BEST, and letting people to set the rules for their own communities would make them as “perfect” as they could possibly be.
Your system presumes that what’s good for the people in Washington, DC (elected officials excluded, of course) is good for the folks in Lincoln, Nebraska, or Grand Rapids, Michigan. That may be “fair” to everybody, but it SUCKS in practice, and it treads the constitution into the dust.
And who still listens to music on the radio? With Pandora and other Internet streaming services, I bet the audience for good old music radio is pretty small.
Every system does. The problem is, the defects that pervade socialized systems – exorbitantly long wait times, rationed treatments, a regression in health care progress discoveries – are far worse than America’s problems.
America’s problems are fixable without damaging the medical advancements this country always makes or without lowering the standard of care we have which is significantly higher than other nations.
Yeah, life expectancies elsewhere may be higher but 1) that can be contributed to a variety of factors other than health care and 2) when I’m diagnosed with cancer, I don’t give a flying fig if I’m going to live to be 78 or 80…I want to know if I’m going to live to my next birthday. And, on that account, American medicine sweeps the board.
But the focus here is Canada and its draconian speech regulation and “human rights” commissions. More specifically, their selective application of whose offense is addressed and whose is ignored.
It took one complaint to remove Dire Straits from the airwaves. Over a word in a song that was reflective of the comments the songwriter overheard, and not a slur directed harmfully at anyone.
But when a band wrote a song intoning “Kill the Christians” the same hackneyed body of bureaucrats deemed it a non-actionable complaint because “There is very little vulnerability of the target group.”
I assert that if lefties love Canada’s medicine, politics, and sensitivity so much, I’m sure Toronto has apartments available for rent.
Blech…. too many songs I don’t want to hear on any channel I create. And they only let you fast forward a limited number of songs per hour.
If I’m at home, I’ll play the music I own for the most part.
As for work, Pandora should be blocked. Biz internet connections have better uses than streaming entertainment.
KABUL CBC OFFICE SENDS
I thought Canadians claimed to be liberal – sound like a bunch of fascists to me.
Wasn’t there a problem in Britain with that Austin Powers movie, the spy who shagged me? The word shag is as offensive as the f word is here. I thought in the west we were supposed to be sensitive to cultural differences.
Pardon my french (no pun intended).
Yeah, I get my chicks for free…
That’s their right, of course. And still might right to express my contempt, bigotry, whatever in opposition to that repulsive behavior.
Oil:
1st.
Lumber: By far 1st (80%) for softwood and 1st for every type of hardwood except veneer and plywood (where Canada is 2nd).
And per the Department of State
Canada is indeed the fifth largest foreign investor.
So. I am actually 3 for 3 and you, yet again are 0 for ihavelostcount.
Hardwood