Clear Channel Dropping the Howard Stern Show

Yahoo! News ^ | 4/8/04 | Reuters

[imfleck]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal regulators said on Thursday they will seek fines totaling $495,000 against six Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations for airing indecent comments made on the popular Howard Stern show.

The Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) said the amount represented the maximum possible under current law of $27,500 for each of the total of eighteen violations.

Clear Channel announced it was pulling the show from its airwaves permanently after failing to get assurances that the program would comply with decency regulations from its syndicator -- Infinity Broadcasting, a unit of Viacom Inc.

Clear Channel first yanked Stern from the six stations in February after complaints about a discussion on his show that included explicit sex talk and a racist remark.

Infinity declined to comment on Clear Channel's decision.

The FCC (news - web sites)'s proposed fine marks the first time the agency has counted as a separate violation each indecent comment uttered on air -- something it warned broadcasters about a year ago.

"Today's decision is a step forward toward imposing meaningful fines," FCC commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement.

The radio stations subject to the proposed penalties were in Cocoa Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; Honeoye Falls, New York; Pittsburgh and San Diego.

The FCC has been cracking down on indecent broadcasts after an outcry from parents and lawmakers. It accelerated its action after Janet Jackson (news)'s breast was exposed during her performance on the national television broadcast of the Super Bowl in February.

Federal rules bar airing obscene material and limit the airing of indecent comments, such as explicit and graphic sexual or excretory references, to late-night broadcasts when children are less likely to be listening or watching.

"We had hoped to return Mr. Stern's show to the air free from indecent content," said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio.

"Unfortunately, the FCC's latest action, combined with deafening silence from the Stern show on their future plans to comply with the law, leave us no choice but to abandon the program for good," Hogan said.

[imfleck]

Figures, another attack on our constitutional rights.

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[verity]

He could be reinstated if he got a decent haircut! :~)

[cyborg]

Clear Channel does not need to keep dead weight. Drop him. Howard is becoming a bitter ole nag anyway.

[Dolphy]

Do I have a constitutional right to the public airwaves?

[Xenalyte]

Stern has no Constitutional right to be heard. He can speak all he wants to - no one is stopping him.

[cripplecreek]

Im still trying to figure out what twisted formula he uses to connect the president to his firing.

[cmsgop]

This is why they suspended him, they new this was coming down the road,

[cyborg]

me too... I don't get it.

[b4its2late]

Breaking News?

[Vision Thing]

Figures, another attack on our constitutional rights.

Nope.

This was a business decision, not a political one.

The decision was based on the violation of existing laws.

[cmsgop]

You are right, under Clinton he got the biggest FCC fine ever.Did he rail against Clinton? Noooooooooooooo!

[MagnusMaximus1]

No, Clear Channel made a smart business decision as a supposedly responsible business should do in the free marketplace. Also, I'm glad to see that the FCC is finally enforcing the current laws.

Howard Stern is a schmuck and a piece of sh*t whose career should have ended a long time ago.

[claudiustg]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Howard!

I can't find anywhere in the Constitution, the right to a particular soapbox or a guarantee of employment.

[Dan from Michigan]

Federal regulators said on Thursday they will seek fines totaling $495,000 against six Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations for airing indecent comments made on the popular Howard Stern show.

UNELECTED JACKBOOTED THUGS AT IT AGAIN.

[cmsgop]

new=knew

[shield]

This is the company Mike McCaul's father-in-law is Chairman of.

[thackney]

Federal regulators said on Thursday they will seek fines totaling $495,000 against six Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations for airing indecent comments made on the popular Howard Stern show.

Howard Stern is carried on more than six radio stations. Has anyone heard if the other radio stations that carried him are receiving the same fines?

[GreatOne]

Disagree - they should have done this a long time ago. The First Amendment is a guarantor against suppression of political speech by the government. The same liberal f---s that gave us Roe v. Wade, et. al, are the same ones who declared nude dancing a protected form of speech. Really - you think that the Framers really meant to protect the right of some whore in a thong to dance on a table as part of free speech? Of course not.

Howard Stern is simply a pornographer on free radio air waves, and should be shut down. This guy's whole act is built upon bringing in hookers, lesbians, and porn stars to his studio and talking explicitly about sex. I don't give a rat's ass what the morons in the black robes said - that's ain't protected speech.

[MagnusMaximus1]

Catholic ping!

Let's begin to celebrate the start of the end of the career of that racist, bigot Howard Stern. His on-the-air, anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, and to a lesser extent, anti-Mel Gibson tirades will soon be flushed to the sewers of Hollywood history.

[sinkspur]

Good riddance!!

[sauropod]

Good riddance to bad rubbish! 'Pod

[TopQuark]

No.

[cmsgop]

Infinity just got hit with a $27,500 fine. They will stand with him untill it gets really ugly if it gets that ugly.

[TopQuark]

Thank you. It's refreshing to hear someone speak with such clarity.

[richmwill]

"Welcome" to the new, exciting, innovative form of radio- like that wacky Casey Kasem. He's so crazy- he counts BACKWARDS!!! Oooohhh- that's a laugh a minute. Cousin Brucie- there's a hot act. He uses silly-sounding names like bebop and whazamatazz- Haha, let the hilarity begin. Maybe they'll start playing 78rpm records on the radio again, so as not to offend anybody. Imus- maybe he'll do his hysterical "Wally The Worm is coming to eat your school!" bit. I remember laughing so hard at that in 1972.

[Dolphy]

No.

Didn't think so;)

[rwfromkansas]

We all have a right to have a job as a radio jock?

Well hot dang. Sign me up please!

[Who dat?]

Figures, another attack on our constitutional rights.

That’s what Stern preaches. I guess he (pretends he) doesn’t understand that broadcasting obscenity violates federal law and is not constitutionally protected, and that broadcasting indecency can be (and is) regulated – constitutionally, legally…

I could probably argue more-or-less effectively that his entire *career* has been to appeal to the prurient interest AND that it lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (or even comedic value) – now all someone has to do is produce instances that describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct as defined by law.

He knows all this, BTW. He knows it inside and out.

He used to be somewhat entertaining. Nobody laughed with him – always at him. Now you can’t even do that. Howard the (self-described) Innovator - meanwhile, I’ve never heard a single bit I didn’t hear somewhere else first (and better). He’s been circling the bowl for a long time, IMO. He’s had to dash into illegal-land to try and get attention. Now it has caught up with him…

[Slarty Bartfast]

Howard Stern is a schmuck and a piece of sh*t whose career should have ended a long time ago.

You are no different than Howard. You spew profanity in a way that wont get you kicked off of this site. The only difference is that you arent funny

[Lady Heron]

Figures, another attack on our constitutional rights.

I am sorry but you are wrong. The FCC's job is to keep the airwaves decent, a job they have not been doing a great job of. You do have a right to see and hear this garbage but not on public airwaves that kids have access to. They will have to figure a way so that the public can buy access like the porn channels on tv but is not open to the whole public.

[StoneColdGOP]

Clear Channel = Cowards.

FCC = "What Constitution?"

[MagnusMaximus1]

Well, well, well...

Don't you worry 'bout a thang buddy boy. You and the rest of Howard Stern's fans will probably still be able to see his vulgar T & A shows on cable TV and exercise your own freedom of choice by your own hand - that is, with the one that is, or is not, working the remote control? /sarcasm off. ;-)

[Fester Chugabrew]

I'm sure there's room for him over at Queer Channel.

[Slarty Bartfast]

You are a grumpy, closed minded person. I appologize if I have added to your woes. Hopefully your Hitleresque views of my way is the only way does not rub off on the rest of the people on this wonderful site

[gdani]

The First Amendment is a guarantor against suppression of political speech by the government.

Funny -- I can't find the word "political" anywhere in my copy of the First Amendment as it relates to speech.

[Junior_G]

Clear Channel = Cowards. FCC = "What Constitution?"

You = Ignoramus. Howard Stern remains as free as ever to express whatever vulgarisms he wants to; but there is no constitutional guarantee to access to the national airwaves. The freedom of speech that we have was not intended to guarantee the right to spout obscenities, it was intended to protect the right of political expression without fear of government retaliation. A hundred years ago, we had freedom of speech, but you still wouldn't be able to get away with wearing a t-shirt that said "F*** OFF" on the front. People's perception of what free speech is all about has become corrupted over the years. People now think it's about the right to be as nasty as they want, and have no appreciation of what the original purpose was.

[gdani]

Please, please, please -- big nanny government -- protect us from the big bad man & his nasty words.

It's not enough that I can change the channel -- I don't want *anyone* listening to him.

[BlazingArizona]

Do I have a constitutional right to the public airwaves?

So long as some network wants to put him on the air, he does. Or did - was it the Patriot Act or the DMCA that took out the First Amendment?

[Hildy]

Looks like stuttering John got out just in time. Couldn't have happened to a nicer fella.

[Slarty Bartfast]

Here, here

[BlazingArizona]

I'm glad to see that the FCC is finally enforcing the current laws.

Come back and tell how glad you are when the next Democrat who gets elected steals enough at gunpoint from Clear Channel to force the network to throw Rush off the air.

[Slarty Bartfast]

Oops: Hear, hear

[Junior_G]

Funny -- I can't find the word "political" anywhere in my copy of the First Amendment as it relates to speech.

You also won't find the word "individual" in the Second Amendment. That doesn't mean it wasn't intended to protect the individual's right to bear arms. It is only in the last 20 or so years of this nation's history that the sort of filth spewed by Howard Stern has been allowed to flow uncensored over the airwaves. There is no Great American Tradition of Howard Sternism. Watching people freak out about the FCC's assault on our freedoms is laughable.

[BlazingArizona]

You are a grumpy, closed minded person. I appologize if I have added to your woes. Hopefully your Hitleresque views of my way is the only way does not rub off on the rest of the people on this wonderful site

We've just been treated to an object lesson in why Bush is going to lose this November. The liberals may bay about the war, but that won't be the deciding issue. He will lose over unemployment, deficit spending and thought control.

[gdani]

Watching people freak out about the FCC's assault on our freedoms is laughable

Yup. Watching an unelected body enforce laws that are vague & overbroad (i.e. "I know it when I see it") sure is laughable.

Tell me -- what part of "if you don't like it, change the channel" don't you understand?

You are essentially no different than a liberal -- you love big govt as long as it's enforcing *your* ideology.

[cmsgop]

Looks like stuttering John got out just in time.

Yeah, no kidding....

[zoyd]

There is no Great American Tradition of Howard Sternism.

Yeah! Who needs a country where people can speak their minds, and, so long as they have an audience, should be allowed to continue to do so? Who needs a country where one of the top five most popular radio personalities gets hounded for material that his audience specifically tunes in for?

Yeah! Who needs it! It's the JOB of the rest of us to decide what voices can be heard.

[MagnusMaximus1]

"UNELECTED JACKBOOTED THUGS AT IT AGAIN."

I understand your concern regarding the potential selective enforcement of laws that limit free speech, under the 1st Amendment. Especially in light of that Iraq CPA's misAdministrator Paul Bremer's anti-free-speech decision to shut down that limited circulation Iraqi newspaper over there, which ultimately resulted in mini-riots, protestors being killed, then, the possibly unprovoked murder of those four US contractors in Fallujah, yada, yada, yada...

Talk about "Unintended Consequences". Though I doubt that Howard Stern fans will take to the streets as a result of this. ;-)

The spark that ignited the current insurgency? Censorship story, and regarding its consequences posted here:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4698348.html