EXAMPLES FROM FCC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS / FCC 2004
NAL – Notice of Apparent Liability
Forfeiture – Fine
FCC Rec – FCC Records
The more explicit or graphic the description or depiction, the greater the likelihood that the material will be considered patently offensive. Merely because the material consists of double entendre or innuendo, however, does not preclude an indecency finding if the sexual or excretory import is unmistakable.
WYSP(FM), Philadelphia, PA “Howard Stern Show” (1987)
`Vulgar and lewd references to the male genitals and to masturbation and sodomy broadcast in the context of . . . `explicit references to masturbation, ejaculation, breast size, penis size, sexual intercourse, nudity, urination, oral-genital contact, erections, sodomy, bestiality, menstruation and testicles.”’God, my testicles are like down to the floor . . . you could really have a party with these . . . Use them like Bocci balls.(As part of a discussion of lesbians) I mean to go around porking other girls with vibrating rubber products . . .Have you ever had sex with an animal? Well, don’t knock it. I was sodomized by Lambchop.
WQAM(AM), Miami, FL “Uterus Guy” Song 1999
I don’t want to grow up, I’m a uterus guy. I want to spend a week or so right here between your thighs. Inhale your clam, with my head jammed by your quivering, crushing gams. No, I don’t want to get up or get a towel to dry, cause I wouldn’t be a uterus guy. I don’t want to get up, I’m a uterus guy and I know where to lick and chew exactly where you like. You’ll have more fun when I make you come, with my nose between your thighs.
KROQ(FM), Los Angeles, CA “You Suck” 1998
I know you’re really proud cause you think you’re well hung but I think its time you learn how to use your tongue. You say you want things to be even and you want things to be fair but you’re afraid to get your teeth caught in my pubic hair. If you’re lying there expecting me to suck your dick,you’re going to have to give me more than just a token lick. . . . Go down baby, you suck, lick it hard and move your tongue around. If you’re worried about babies, you can lower your risk,by giving me that special cunnilingus kiss. . . . you can jiggle your tongue on my clit. Don’t worry about making me have an orgasm. . . . You asshole, you shit. I know it’s a real drag, to suck my cunt when I’m on the rag. . . .You tell me it’s gross to suck my yeast infection. How do you think I feel when I gag on your erection.
WXTB(FM), Clearwater, FL “Bubba, The Love Sponge” 2000
Most women don’t like swallowing, but I do. The trick isyou need to swallow at the right time. Do it when you’re deep throating. . . . I like pleasure giving, I like a pleasure giving woman who really, really likes to enjoy giving oral. . . . She does more than just go up and down, she’s creative by licking, nibbling and using overall different techniques. . . . The sexy turn on for me is when I . . . expel into my partner’s mouth. . . . I don’t mind giving BJs . . . if a man doesn’t get off, that means he wasn’t quite excited by my techniques.
Less explicit material and material that relies principally on innuendo to convey a sexual or excretory meaning have also been cited by the Commission as actionably indecent where the sexual or excretory meaning was unmistakable.
KLOL(FM), Houston, TX “Stevens and Pruett Show”
The doctor was talking about size. The man complained earlier that he was so large that it was ruining his marriages. Big is good if the guy knows how to use it. She is so big she could handle anything. Some of these guys, a very few of them, a hand full are like . . . two hands full. Twelve inches, about the size of a beer can in diameter. So, now could you handle something like that? It’s actually ruined marriages. A big organ for a big cathedral. Somebody big is just going to have to find somebody that’s big. Indecent – NAL Issued. The Rusk Corporation (KLOL(FM)), 8 FCC Rcd 3228 (1993) (forfeiture paid).
\As to the use of innuendo in the cited passages, the Commission said: “[W]hile [the licensee] may have substituted innuendo and double entendre for more directly explicit sexual references and descriptions in some instances, unmistakable sexual references remain that render the sexual meaning of the innuendo inescapable.” 8 FCC Rcd at 3228.
KGB-FM, San Diego, CA “Candy Wrapper” Song
I whipped out my Whopper and whispered, Hey, Sweettart, how’d you like to Crunch on my Big Hunk for a Million Dollar Bar? Well, she immediately went down on my Tootsie Roll and you know, it was like pure Almond Joy. I couldn’t help but grab her delicious Mounds, … this little Twix had the Red Hots. … as my Butterfinger went up her tight little Kit Kat, and she started to scream Oh, Henry! Oh, Henry! Soon she was fondling my Peter Paul, and Zagnuts and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I blew my Milk Duds clear to Mars and gave her a taste of the old Milky Way. … I said, Look … why don’t you just take my Whatchamacallit and slip it up your Bit-O-Honey. Oh, what a piece of Juicy Fruit she was too. She screamed Oh, Crackerjack. You’re better than the Three Musketeers! as I rammed my Ding Dong up her Rocky Road and into her Peanut Butter Cup. Well, I was giving it to her Good ‘n Plenty, and all of a sudden, my Starburst. … she started to grow a bit Chunky and … Sure enough, nine months later, out popped a Baby Ruth.
Indecent – NAL Issued. KGB, Inc. (KGB-FM), 7 FCC Rcd 3207 (1992), forfeiture reduced 13 FCC Rcd 16396 (1998) (forfeiture paid). See also Great American Television and Radio Company, Inc. (WFBQ(FM)/WNDE(AM)), 6 FCC Rcd 3692,
3693 (MMB 1990) (forfeiture paid) (“While the passages arguably consist of double entendre and indirect references, the language used in each passage was understandable and clearly capable of a specific sexual meaning and, because of the context, the sexual import was inescapable.”); and WIOD,
Inc. (WIOD(AM)), 6 FCC Rcd 3704 (MMB 1989) (forfeiture paid) (“notwithstanding the use of candy bar names to symbolize sexual activities, the titillating and pandering nature of the song makes any thought of candy bars peripheral at best”).
Compare the following case in which the material aired was deemed not to be actionably indecent.
WFBQ(FM)/WNDE(AM), Indianapolis, IN “Elvis” and “Power,Power, Power”
As you know, you gotta stop the King, but you can’t kill him . . . So you talk to Dick Nixon, man you get him on the phone and Dick suggests maybe getting like a mega-Dick to help out, but you know, you remember the time the King ate
mega-Dick under the table at a 095 picnic . . . you think about getting mega-Hodgie, but that’s no good because you know, the King was a karate dude . . . Power! Power! Power! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! First it was Big Foot, the monster car crunching 4×4 pickup truck. Well, move over, Big Foot! Here comes the most massive power- packed monster ever! It’s Big Peter! (Laughter) Big Peter with 40,000 Peterbilt horsepower under the hood. It’s massive! Big Peter! Formerly the Big Dick’s Dog Wiener Mobile. Big Peter features a 75-foot jacked up monster body. See Big Peter crush and enter a Volvo. (Laughter) . . . strapped himself in the cockpit and put Big Peter through its paces. So look out Big Foot! Big Peter is coming! Oh my God! It’s coming! Big Peter! (Laughter)Not Indecent. Great American Television and Radio Company, Inc. (WFBQ(FM)/WNDE(AM)), 6 FCC Rcd 3692 (MMB 1990). The licensee provided a fuller transcript of the cited “Elvis” excerpt and explained the context in which it was aired, arguing that no sexual meaning was intended and that no such meaning would be reasonably understood from the material taken as a whole. The licensee also explained the regional humor of the Power, Power, Power excerpt and the context in which it was broadcast. The Mass Media Bureau held that the material was not indecent because the “surrounding contexts do not appear to provide a background against which a sexual import is inescapable.” 6 FCC Rcd at 3693. In assessing explicitness, the Commission also looks to the audibility of the material as aired. If the material is difficult or impossible to understand, it may not be actionably indecent. However, difficulty in understanding part of the material or an attempt to obscure objectionable material will not preclude a finding of indecency where at least some of the material is recognizable or understandable.
KGB-FM, San Diego, CA “Sit on My Face”
Sit on my face and tell me that you love me. I’ll sit on
your face and tell you I love you, too. I love to hear you moralize when I’m between your thighs. You blow me away. Sit on my face and let me embrace you. I’ll sit on your face and then I’ll love you (?) truly. Life can be fine, if we both sixty-nine. If we sit on faces (?) the ultimate place to play (?). We’ll be blown away.Indecent – NAL Issued. KGB, Inc. (KGB-FM), 7 FCC Rcd 3207 (MMB 1992), forfeiture reduced 13 FCC Rcd 16396 (1998) (forfeiture paid). The song was found to be actionably indecent despite English accent and “ambient noise” because the lyrics were sufficiently understandable. 7 FCC Rcd at 3207.