"Unauthorized" radio edits

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Last summer I was flipping stations and on the legacy hard rock/metal station they were playing Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." It's not a hard rock song, and to make it more suitable for the format it had been beefed up with some added metallic guitar riffs that were not part of the original recording. I looked on YouTube and could not find this version.

I've also heard a station play CSNY's 1980 harder rock remix of "Carry On" spliced together with the original 1970 "Questions" part of the song, which the remix did not include.

How does this work?

[jeffandnicole]

Editing machines would easily do it, but being the artist gets a royalty every time their music is aired, either they agreed to the edits, or the studio provided alternative formats and versions.

[ErmineNotyours]

When I moved in with my mom and step dad, they listened to lite rock KIXI-FM at dinner.  That was the first time I heard "Self Control" by Laura Branigan, which was on regular rotation.  It wasn't until I heard the song on another station that I found the song has a somewhat hard guitar solo just before the vocal that was cut out of the KIXI version.  I have never heard that version of the song anywhere else.

[bandit957]

Back in 1987, some stations edited "I Want Your Sex" by George Michael to remove the word "sex" from the chorus. I think the only time I ever heard this version was once on WLAP-FM. I'm not sure, but I think they may have played the unedited version at other times. I honestly don't know whether they regularly played it when it was current, because I never listened to this station yet back then.

I remember WCLU played a special version of "Baby Come And Get It" by the Pointer Sisters in which they inserted a bunch of suggestive lines from movies. I was in middle school, so of course I thought that was hilarious.

[abefroman329]

A commercial radio station would never play an unauthorized radio edit, that's a good way to get sued into oblivion.

[NWI_Irish96]

Starship's 1985 #1 single "We Built This City" has a segment with a voiceover by a radio DJ. The Top 40 station in South Bend overdubbed that segment with one of their own DJs promoting their station. I'm sure lots of other stations did the same.

[Life in Paradise]

Starship's 1985 #1 single "We Built This City" has a segment with a voiceover by a radio DJ. The Top 40 station in South Bend overdubbed that segment with one of their own DJs promoting their station. I'm sure lots of other stations did the same.

There was quite a bit of that with "We Built This City" when it was out.  I'm guessing that it was approved by Starship.  In the early 1990s there were a couple of songs "Show Me the Way" by Styx stands out that had cuts of servicemen edited into the song, and because of that it went to #3.

On the matter of different versions of the same song, it used to be even up into the 80s that there could be a long and short version of a song.  The "album version" would be the long version, and the shorter one played at a top 40 station.  Many times during much of the period they would be considered AM and FM versions (before top 40 disappeared on AM).  I don't remember two different versions of "Self-Control", but there easily could have been.  The long versions a lot of times would have more guitar riffs (Example-Sweet's "Love is Like Oxygen")

[vdeane]

Not sure of the title or artist, but there's a song that starts with "come on, come on, turn the radio on", and on my local radio station "the radio" gets replaced with "FLY92" (the name of the station).  Threw me through a loop when I heard the regular version of the song on another station.

There's also a rare case of the the radio getting the full version of the song but the album getting the edited one... for whatever reason, Taylor Swift removed "hey kids, spelling is fun!" from Me when the album was released.

And speaking of spelling, did the content rules for language get stricter in 2022?  Replacing the F word with "forget" has been common for years, but at least on my local station, they were only doing it if the word was said in full.  Now they're doing it even just for the letter when it's meant that way, making the "A, B, C, D, E, F, U" part of one song come out weird.  The change happened right around New Year's.

[SectorZ]

In 2001, when "Because I Got High" by Afroman came out, for some reason some rock stations were playing it as a PSA. Both WBCN and WAAF played it and interjected a call-sign drop into it, and I never knew why.

I actually asked a DJ at WAAF a couple of years later and she confirmed they were playing it as a PSA but I never asked why they had to identify the station in the middle of it. I guess it doesn't really count as an edit, mark it more "weird behavior".

[JoePCool14]

Not sure of the title or artist, but there's a song that starts with "come on, come on, turn the radio on", and on my local radio station "the radio" gets replaced with "FLY92" (the name of the station).  Threw me through a loop when I heard the regular version of the song on another station.

I remember this one. I think it's Cheap Thrills. There was at least one station here in Chicago that had the same thing, B96 I think.

[Henry]

And speaking of spelling, did the content rules for language get stricter in 2022?  Replacing the F word with "forget" has been common for years, but at least on my local station, they were only doing it if the word was said in full.  Now they're doing it even just for the letter when it's meant that way, making the "A, B, C, D, E, F, U" part of one song come out weird.  The change happened right around New Year's.

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now. (Mind you, this was in an era where the F-bomb was forbidden in PG-rated movies, and to a certain extent still is, which may at long last explain why in Smokey & the Bandit, Jackie Gleason's insult to another sheriff was drowned out by a passing truck horn.) In later years, stations would play it with a new line ("who the hell are you") edited in. My guess is that the FCC finally got its shit together in '89 when they refused to let any station play a certain rap album that had a profane criticism against police officers, and many of you would know what I mean by it.

[NWI_Irish96]

And speaking of spelling, did the content rules for language get stricter in 2022?  Replacing the F word with "forget" has been common for years, but at least on my local station, they were only doing it if the word was said in full.  Now they're doing it even just for the letter when it's meant that way, making the "A, B, C, D, E, F, U" part of one song come out weird.  The change happened right around New Year's.

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now. (Mind you, this was in an era where the F-bomb was forbidden in PG-rated movies, and to a certain extent still is, which may at long last explain why in Smokey & the Bandit, Jackie Gleason's insult to another sheriff was drowned out by a passing truck horn.) In later years, stations would play it with a new line ("who the hell are you") edited in. My guess is that the FCC finally got its shit together in '89 when they refused to let any station play a certain rap album that had a profane criticism against police officers, and many of you would know what I mean by it.

PG movies can't have any F-bombs. PG-13 movies can have one but not more than one. Don't ask me why it's OK for a 13 year old to hear an F-bomb once but not more than once.

[dlsterner]

I remember the song "Fire" - the one written by Bruce Springsteen and popularized by the Pointer Sisters, back in the 1980's ...

The lyrics began: "I'm ridin' in your car, You turn on the radio ..."

followed by an injection of the local station's call letter jingle.  Believe I've heard this on several different stations.

[Scott5114]

Today I heard a version of "99 Red Balloons" on KOMA (yes it's still around) that switched back and forth between the German and the English vocals. Afterward the DJ credited one of her friends for having made the mix. So apparently commercial radio stations will play unauthorized radio edits in some circumstances. (I would guess this is kosher because KOMA probably has the license to play both versions of the song.)

[dlsterner]

I was just reminded of an instance where an "Unauthorized" radio edit led to a legitimate authorized recording ...

Back in 1978, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand separately recorded the song "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (written by Diamond) as album cuts.  A local DJ created a "mash-up" of the two recordings to make it into a duet, and would play it on the air.  Apparently this became more and more popular, to the point where the two singers decided to actually record the song as a duet.  Later that year it was released as a single, going to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[Big John]

When WKTI (Milwaukee) Played The Boys of Summer by Don Henley, the DJ would talk over the line" Don't look back you can never look back".

[I-55]

And speaking of spelling, did the content rules for language get stricter in 2022?  Replacing the F word with "forget" has been common for years, but at least on my local station, they were only doing it if the word was said in full.  Now they're doing it even just for the letter when it's meant that way, making the "A, B, C, D, E, F, U" part of one song come out weird.  The change happened right around New Year's.

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now. (Mind you, this was in an era where the F-bomb was forbidden in PG-rated movies, and to a certain extent still is, which may at long last explain why in Smokey & the Bandit, Jackie Gleason's insult to another sheriff was drowned out by a passing truck horn.) In later years, stations would play it with a new line ("who the hell are you") edited in. My guess is that the FCC finally got its shit together in '89 when they refused to let any station play a certain rap album that had a profane criticism against police officers, and many of you would know what I mean by it.

PG movies can't have any F-bombs. PG-13 movies can have one but not more than one. Don't ask me why it's OK for a 13 year old to hear an F-bomb once but not more than once.

Ocean's Eleven has at least two f-bombs and is rated PG-13, so unless the f-bomb is a Chinese word for something else (in which case Yen's only English line in the movie is no longer English) the rule would be broken.

[NWI_Irish96]

And speaking of spelling, did the content rules for language get stricter in 2022?  Replacing the F word with "forget" has been common for years, but at least on my local station, they were only doing it if the word was said in full.  Now they're doing it even just for the letter when it's meant that way, making the "A, B, C, D, E, F, U" part of one song come out weird.  The change happened right around New Year's.

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now. (Mind you, this was in an era where the F-bomb was forbidden in PG-rated movies, and to a certain extent still is, which may at long last explain why in Smokey & the Bandit, Jackie Gleason's insult to another sheriff was drowned out by a passing truck horn.) In later years, stations would play it with a new line ("who the hell are you") edited in. My guess is that the FCC finally got its shit together in '89 when they refused to let any station play a certain rap album that had a profane criticism against police officers, and many of you would know what I mean by it.

PG movies can't have any F-bombs. PG-13 movies can have one but not more than one. Don't ask me why it's OK for a 13 year old to hear an F-bomb once but not more than once.

Ocean's Eleven has at least two f-bombs and is rated PG-13, so unless the f-bomb is a Chinese word for something else (in which case Yen's only English line in the movie is no longer English) the rule would be broken.

I've heard several times that PG-13 can only have one f-bomb so I don't know if the standard changed or if there's more to it.

[Molandfreak]

And speaking of spelling, did the content rules for language get stricter in 2022?  Replacing the F word with "forget" has been common for years, but at least on my local station, they were only doing it if the word was said in full.  Now they're doing it even just for the letter when it's meant that way, making the "A, B, C, D, E, F, U" part of one song come out weird.  The change happened right around New Year's.

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now. (Mind you, this was in an era where the F-bomb was forbidden in PG-rated movies, and to a certain extent still is, which may at long last explain why in Smokey & the Bandit, Jackie Gleason's insult to another sheriff was drowned out by a passing truck horn.) In later years, stations would play it with a new line ("who the hell are you") edited in. My guess is that the FCC finally got its shit together in '89 when they refused to let any station play a certain rap album that had a profane criticism against police officers, and many of you would know what I mean by it.

PG movies can't have any F-bombs. PG-13 movies can have one but not more than one. Don't ask me why it's OK for a 13 year old to hear an F-bomb once but not more than once.

Ocean's Eleven has at least two f-bombs and is rated PG-13, so unless the f-bomb is a Chinese word for something else (in which case Yen's only English line in the movie is no longer English) the rule would be broken.

I think what is allowed is up to the raters at the MPAA, who vary year to year and can be pretty inconsistent. The Martian also has two, and it's PG-13.

But interestingly, I've seen that movie on TV both in the US and Canada. In Canada, the F-bombs were left in and it was rated 14+. In the US, both were cut and it was TV-MA.

[KeithE4Phx]

I remember the song "Fire" - the one written by Bruce Springsteen and popularized by the Pointer Sisters, back in the 1980's ...

The lyrics began: "I'm ridin' in your car, You turn on the radio ..."

followed by an injection of the local station's call letter jingle.  Believe I've heard this on several different stations.

WLS had their own version.  IIRC, one other Chicago station did as well (WBBM-FM?).  These specific versions were recorded by the Pointer Sisters themselves.

[KeithE4Phx]

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now.

The single "AM radio" version of Who Are You had "Who the hell are you" instead of the F-bomb that FM stations got away with.  Both were Roger Daltrey's vocals.  Nowadays, at least on the classic rock stations in Phoenix, the AM version is played.

(Mind you, this was in an era where the F-bomb was forbidden in PG-rated movies, and to a certain extent still is, which may at long last explain why in Smokey & the Bandit, Jackie Gleason's insult to another sheriff was drowned out by a passing truck horn.)

The TV release of Smokey and the Bandit had Henry Corden (aka Fred Flintstone #2) overdubbing Gleason's "sumbitch" lines as "sumbuck."  IIRC, this release was in the late 1980s, after Gleason had died.

[Molandfreak]

Yeah, I remember hearing Who Are You's "who the fuck are you" line being played on the radio, and in retrospect I'm quite surprised that the censors didn't drop the hammer on it back then like they do now.

The single "AM radio" version of Who Are You had "Who the hell are you" instead of the F-bomb that FM stations got away with.  Both were Roger Daltrey's vocals.  Nowadays, at least on the classic rock stations in Phoenix, the AM version is played.

Must be a regional difference, because Daltrey's F-bombs can still be heard in Duluth, MN.

Similar to that, I'm not sure if I've ever heard this song play on US airwaves, but "High School Confidential"  by Rough Trade plays pretty often on some Thunder Bay radio stations, with the uncensored lyrics "she's a cool blonde scheming bitch"  and "she makes me cream my jeans when she's coming my way."  I almost spit out my water the first time I heard it.

[lepidopteran]

Starship's 1985 #1 single "We Built This City" has a segment with a voiceover by a radio DJ. The Top 40 station in South Bend overdubbed that segment with one of their own DJs promoting their station.

I once heard that Starship released two versions of "We Built This City", one with the radio DJ voiceover, and one without it.  They said the purpose of the latter was just that -- so a local DJ could add their own rap.  BTW, the one time I heard that local DJ was on Z-93 in Dayton, where he made mention of "those barrels (or was it 'barricades') on I-75", which was undergoing reconstruction through downtown at the time.  Resurfacing, converting bridge parapets and I think the median to Jersey-type barrier style, fixing bad joints, and lengthening a single on-ramp.  Still that was minor compared to what was to be in the 00's and new 10s.

I know of two songs that have a silent spot in the middle, in which at least one DJ adds their own line.

One is "Good Lovin'" by The Rascals.  During the break between the instrumental interlude and the refrain, I've heard a line by Homer Simpson.

The other is "Love is Alright Tonight" by Rick Springfield.  The silence is after the line "it's gonna be alright"; one morning DJ threw in the line "Time to get up!" in that space.

The song "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters had a well-known silent spot as well, though I've never heard any interjections.  I did, however, hear another song begin there once.

At least once I heard a DJ parrot the "Stronger than dirt" line at the end of "Touch Me" by The Doors.

Finally, going back over 42 years, I remember a DJ playing a trumpet along with the final, instrumental verse of "Reminiscing" by The Little River Band.

(For what it's worth, a radio station in Columbus did a parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time" during a major I-71 project.  It went "Oh, oh oh oh, stuck on 71... for the longest time")

[JoePCool14]

(For what it's worth, a radio station in Columbus did a parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time" during a major I-71 project.  It went "Oh, oh oh oh, stuck on 71... for the longest time")

97.1 FM The Drive in Chicago has (or at least used to) a joke version of "Let 'Em In" by Wings where they'd sing about the "Stevenson", how the traffic was bad. I don't really remember the other words they used though.

[bandit957]

(For what it's worth, a radio station in Columbus did a parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time" during a major I-71 project.  It went "Oh, oh oh oh, stuck on 71... for the longest time")

97.1 FM The Drive in Chicago has (or at least used to) a joke version of "Let 'Em In" by Wings where they'd sing about the "Stevenson", how the traffic was bad. I don't really remember the other words they used though.

Whenever that song came on the radio, I used to sing, "Bert and Ernie, Phil and Don..."