Colorado radio station fined for airing edited Eminem tune

By The Associated Press

06.06.01

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Rap artist Eminem performs at MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7, 2000, at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado Springs radio station is facing a $7,000 fine for repeatedly airing an edited, but still racy, version of rapper Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady."

KKMG-FM officials said yesterday the station has not paid the fine and is considering what to do. They have 30 days to respond to the Federal Communications Commission complaint.

The fine comes on the heels of an April FCC report clarifying the agency's indecency guidelines.

KKMG operations manager Bobby Irwin said the station did not view the edited version of the song as indecent but quit broadcasting it after getting the FCC's notice June 1.

A Madison, Wis., radio station paid a $7,000 fine earlier this year after it played the unedited version of the song.

The FCC said last week the edited version aired by the Colorado Springs' station "contains unmistakable offensive sexual references."

The ruling is worrisome to some radio station workers because the Eminem track was broadcast nationwide during the spring and summer of 2000.

"Virtually every pop, Top-40 station played that song," said Cat Collins, program director for Denver's KQKS-FM. "That was a No. 1 record. It was the kind of record that stations played 65 to 70 times a week."

Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, says airing the song is protected by the First Amendment.

"It would be a disgrace if the FCC were to impose a violation on a radio station because they didn't like the 'suggestive' nature of a song." Rosen told Daily Variety. "That goes right to the heart of idea-based censorship."

A KKMG listener filed the indecency complaint in July 2000.

The FCC ruled the station played a version of the tune that was indecent and still had some expletives, as well as innuendoes to violent misogyny and graphic sex. The lyrics contain references intended to pander and shock, the agency said.

Broadcasting the song also violated a ban on airing patently offensive material from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., when children are most likely to be listening, the FCC said.

The edited version of "The Real Slim Shady" was provided by Interscope Records, the label that produces Eminem's records. Radio music directors said stations often edit songs further before airing them.

KKMG is owned by Citadel Communications in Las Vegas.

Update

Colorado station protests FCC fine for playing edited rap song
Agency ‘has violated the precept that the government must tread lightly where it ventures into the area of broadcast censorship,’ attorneys say in filing.  07.05.01

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