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Radio stations that banned "dirty" songs

Started by bandit957, April 11, 2018, 11:40:36 PM

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bandit957

What radio stations were the worst with banning songs because of lyrics that they considered too suggestive?

I always thought WKRQ in Cincinnati was one of the worst, or at least one of the most hypocritical. Back in 1987, this station went so far as to delete "I Want Your Sex" by George Michael from 'American Top 40'. I also remember this station butchering a couple songs in the '90s because of lyrics, such as "Sweat" by Inner Circle.

It seems like WCLU was fairly liberal about lyrics, but this station went away right before the George Michael hit was released. I lived far south enough that I could pick up the old WLAP-FM of Lexington, and it seems like they also didn't have many lyrical edits. But I'm not 100% sure if they played the George Michael song when it was new. (I'm sure they played it a couple years later, but rarely.)

WKRQ also reportedly refused to play "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood because an anti-porn group threatened to picket the station's advertisers. But they didn't delete it from 'American Top 40'. WCLU played "Relax" quite a bit, and I never heard of their advertisers being picketed. I was told a lot of stations deleted "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground from 'AT40', but WKRQ didn't.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool


wxfree

On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."
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cjk374

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Rothman

Quote from: wxfree on April 12, 2018, 01:07:48 AM
On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."


I believe WAQY did the same.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

texaskdog

Luda Chris just played at the Austin Rodeo and cut all the dirty words.  It was pretty cool.

texaskdog

Our joke in the 80s was our local milquetoast radio station that played Rock You Like a Hurricane changed "give her inches and feed her well" to "give her pancakes and feed her well"

abefroman329

They all went to pretty extreme lengths post-Nipplegate - I remember hearing "masturbate" censored from Captain Jack by Billy Joel.

Then there's the maybe-an-urban-legend-maybe-not about Clear Channel stations banning songs from the airwaves post-9/11 that could even remotely be construed as connected to the attacks, such as the Everclear song with the lyric "swim out past the breakers/watch the world die."

jp the roadgeek

Quote from: Rothman on April 12, 2018, 07:24:11 AM
Quote from: wxfree on April 12, 2018, 01:07:48 AM
On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."


I believe WAQY did the same.

WAQY also cuts the British word for cigarette out of the second verse of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.
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hbelkins

I don't think I have ever heard "Money" played with the word "bullsh*t" edited out.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

abefroman329

Quote from: hbelkins on April 12, 2018, 10:59:15 AM
I don't think I have ever heard "Money" played with the word "bullsh*t" edited out.

I have, but not nearly as frequently as I've heard it unedited.

abefroman329

Quote from: jp the roadgeek on April 12, 2018, 10:24:29 AM
Quote from: Rothman on April 12, 2018, 07:24:11 AM
Quote from: wxfree on April 12, 2018, 01:07:48 AM
On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."


I believe WAQY did the same.

WAQY also cuts the British word for cigarette out of the second verse of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.

Nowadays radio stations cut that whole line, which is how they ran the video on Friday Night Videos 30 years ago.

abefroman329

Quote from: wxfree on April 12, 2018, 01:07:48 AM
On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."

I've heard that and I've heard the word blanked out.

bandit957

Quote from: jp the roadgeek on April 12, 2018, 10:24:29 AM
WAQY also cuts the British word for cigarette out of the second verse of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.

Most stations I've heard skip the second verse, since I think that was a standard edit. Even the old WCLU skipped that verse.

WKRQ butchered "Money For Nothing" worse than any other station did. They cut it down to about 2 minutes. For some reason, they cut off the "I want my MTV" chant at the beginning, so it sounded like it started with a person releasing their hand from the turntable.

Anyone else remember when "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" had an AM version and an FM version?
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

RobbieL2415

I've heard the word "drugs" censored before on the Top 40 stations in my area.  Dead serious.

abefroman329

Quote from: RobbieL2415 on April 12, 2018, 12:52:49 PM
I've heard the word "drugs" censored before on the Top 40 stations in my area.  Dead serious.

I remember when MTV would censor "joint" from the video for You Don't Know How It Feels.

abefroman329

Quote from: bandit957 on April 12, 2018, 12:12:45 PM
Anyone else remember when "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" had an AM version and an FM version?

I'm aware that there's one version where Johnny calls the Devil a son of a gun and one where he calls the Devil a son of a bitch, I didn't know those were AM and FM versions.

TheHighwayMan3561

On occasion I'd hear the uncensored "fuck"  ("aw who the fuck are you?" ) in The Who's "Who Are You" .
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renegade

Before the whole Clear Channel/i(heart)radio clusterfuck, WEBN in Cincinnati played pretty much everything uncensored in all dayparts.  I always thought it was rather ballsy for them, as other radio stations kept their uncensored music to the late evening and overnight hours.
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PHLBOS

Quote from: abefroman329 on April 12, 2018, 12:59:49 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on April 12, 2018, 12:12:45 PM
Anyone else remember when "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" had an AM version and an FM version?

I'm aware that there's one version where Johnny calls the Devil a son of a gun and one where he calls the Devil a son of a bitch, I didn't know those were AM and FM versions.
I believe he's inferring that the AM version used gun whereas the FM version used bitch.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

hotdogPi

Quote from: PHLBOS on April 12, 2018, 03:59:11 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 12, 2018, 12:59:49 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on April 12, 2018, 12:12:45 PM
Anyone else remember when "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" had an AM version and an FM version?

I'm aware that there's one version where Johnny calls the Devil a son of a gun and one where he calls the Devil a son of a bitch, I didn't know those were AM and FM versions.
I believe he's inferring that the AM version used gun whereas the FM version used bitch.

The one and only time I heard it, it was an FM station, and it said "gun".
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SectorZ

Quote from: wxfree on April 12, 2018, 01:07:48 AM
On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."

I was in a store recently and heard Jet Airliner unedited. I imagined somewhere someone found a manager to bitch about it, especially since Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, ME has a lot of 'those' types of moms...

jp the roadgeek

MTV used to edit "You Don't Know How it Feels (to be Me)" by Tom Petty by reversing the tape during the line "Let's Roll Another Joint" so joint sounded either like "now", "down", or even "meow"
Interstates I've clinched: 97, 290 (MA), 291 (CT), 291 (MA), 293, 295 (DE-NJ-PA), 295 (RI-MA), 384, 391, 395 (CT-MA), 395 (MD), 495 (DE), 610 (LA), 684, 691, 695 (MD), 695 (NY), 795 (MD)

signalman

Quote from: jp the roadgeek on April 12, 2018, 09:28:22 PM
MTV used to edit "You Don't Know How it Feels (to be Me)" by Tom Petty by reversing the tape during the line "Let's Roll Another Joint" so joint sounded either like "now", "down", or even "meow"
I always thought it sounded like now.  I'm glad that I'm not the only one.

Duke87

Quote from: bandit957 on April 12, 2018, 12:12:45 PM
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on April 12, 2018, 10:24:29 AM
WAQY also cuts the British word for cigarette out of the second verse of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.

Most stations I've heard skip the second verse, since I think that was a standard edit. Even the old WCLU skipped that verse.

That verse is omitted from the music video as well.

Quote from: RobbieL2415 on April 12, 2018, 12:52:49 PM
I've heard the word "drugs" censored before on the Top 40 stations in my area.  Dead serious.

In many cases an album with a parental advisory sticker will have an edited version, which tends to be edited down not merely to FCC guidelines but to almost G rating. Radio stations will often play the versions of these songs from the edited version of the album, with the accompanying overbearing censorship.

For example the edited version of "Ridin' Dirty" by Chamilionaire contains like 40 record scratches in the place of ostensibly dirty words, but many of them are totally mundane. What you will hear as "got a full *record scratch* in my *record scratch*" on the radio is really just "got a full clip in my pistol-a". Totally acceptable to play on the air, but not to market as kid-friendly since some parents think guns are inappropriate.
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KeithE4Phx

Quote from: wxfree on April 12, 2018, 01:07:48 AM
On the opposite side, I remember years ago, at least back to the 90s, KZPS in Dallas, a classic rock station, played unedited Pink Floyd's "Money" with the line "don't give me that do goody good bullshit."  More recently, though, the local stations were silencing the offending word.

At the same time, Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" was played with the line "funky shit goin' down in the city" replaced with the line "funky kicks goin' down in the city."

In both cases, and others in the '70s, there was an "AM" version and an "FM" version of those songs.  The version that aired on Ancient Modulation had the nasty words either edited out, or the artist/band recorded a cleaned-up version.  This was the version usually released as a single.

Another one was The Who's Who Are You, where "Who the f*** are you" was sung by Roger Daltrey as "Who the hell are you" on the AM-friendly single.
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