FCC Regulations (Was: OT: Good-bye! (very, very long))

[Guest guest]

> Re: OT: Good-bye! (very, very long)

>

> On 9/6/05, Deanna Wagner <hl@...> wrote:

>

> > Shoot, I am hardly ever awake after prime time! I guess

> I'll have to

> > stick with " chicken livered " during the day. But wait, this is an

> > international list spanning several time zones. I think we should

> > accommodate all of them. Besides, most other western-type

> countries

> > are just as free and easy about this sort of expression. And what

> > about bitch and bastard, are they spoken on TV?

>

> I don't know whether bastard is or not, since I'm not sure

> how often I'd hear it anyway, but I'm pretty sure " bitch "

> isn't because I'd hear it all the time from music videos, and

> I don't ever notice hearing it.

Both " bitch " and " bastard " are allowed. As is " dick, " provided that it's

used to refer to a personality type rather than an anatomical feature. It's

really pretty arbitrary, though. During a summer vacation many years ago, I

was flipping through the channels during the middle of the day and stopped

on a soap opera just long enough to hear the phrase " chicken shit. " Really,

you can get away with anything as long as no one complains.

> I'm pretty sure " bitch " is not allowed on the radio,

> although what radios will bleep out seems rather inconsistent

> sometimes.

It may be that certain stations have standards stricter than those required

by the FCC. When I lived in Atlanta, there was a station that didn't bleep

out anything. I asked a friend about it, and he said that the fines were low

enough and rare enough that they just didn't bother.