27 January 2009

ethical dilemma in re: tullycraft

As I am preparing for tomorrow's radio show, I am having a bit of an ethical dilemma.

Last week, someone called in to my show threatening to report me to the FCC because of the word "fuck" appearing in QWEE!'s themesong, Tullycraft's "Twee." The word appears three times throughout the song, in the ever-classic "You can keep the punk rock, ska, rap beats, and house, fuck me I'm twee!" My last show marked the three year anniversary of QWEE!, at least two and a half of those years have started with "Twee" at least bi-weekly. And no one, not once, has ever called in to complain.

So now I am faced with this dilemma, and I'm sure the answer to it is obvious. I've edited "Twee" to remove those three obscenities, leaving it squeaky clean in its references to the indie pop greats, but now I can't help but feel dirty. Am I destroying this song? Is this wrong of me? I certainly don't want to get WHPK in $21,000 worth of trouble (apparently the price at $7,000 an offense), but it just seems wrong... I am pretty sure, however, that would be the first obscenity fine in twee's history.

So to that asshole who called in: fuck you.

Good thing I can say that here.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, I didn't know that this goon threatened you with action because the song had the word 'fuck' in it. I thought he was threatening you because you were using a non-commissioned song as your 'theme' song.

Now that I know this, it makes me more confident that he'd have no basis to bring legal action against you. You are part of a college radio station, which tend to encompass some of the most diverse sounds and rosters of bands around. SURELY there are LOADS of songs and even band names that use - gasp! - swear words and are broadcast over the airwaves with no second thoughts given, right?

Did you talk to other DJs or station staff about this? Maybe this idiot has some sort of personal vendetta going??

*jennifer*

culture for robots said...

well chris, you may be able to say that, but there is a logical fallacy here. he can't be fucked because he is obvs not twee.