Ofcom has found Havering’s Time 107.5 in breach of its licence after broadcasting a song with offensive language.
The station, owned by Lyca Media, says it could not justify the use of the song Tribute by Tenacious D on the Rob Jones show.
Ofcom received a complaint about offensive language in the music track, broadcast at approximately 20:35 on 13 March 2018.
This song lyrics included two instances of the word “motherfcker” and one instance of the word “fck”.
Lyca explained that the presenter responsible for playing the track sourced it from the internet and did not realise that the song contained offensive language. The Licensee added that playing music from the internet was against the station’s protocols.
The Licensee said that the presenter broadcast an apology in his show the week following the incident. In addition, it said it had “re-enforced [its] style guide to all [its] team and will continue to re-enforce this on a regular basis as a constant reminder never to make this error again”.
what’s new
So what! Capital FM broadcast four letter words during their much timedelayed summertime ball a few years back and didn’t get told off or fine. The foul language came from the mouth of Miley Cyrus. One rule for the big boys and one for the small ones. Inconsistent OFCOM as usual I note.
The context is much different. Capital gave some on-air warnings ahead of time, and there was reasonable expectation of the audience that there might be some offensive language. As long as a station has good compliance procedures, accidental potential breaches usually are not taken up further. Ofcom did assess/investigate this, but decided there was no breach.
Not the end of the world
OFCOM out of touch with real life. People swear and radio needs to grow up(like other mediums such as Television have done) and reflect society as it is instead of this artificial sanitised output. Thankfully internet radio and Podcasts are leading the way. Just my humble opinion is all.