Replies

Radio Authority fines Virgin Radio £75,000 for serious breach

Virgin Radio has been fined £75,000 for broadcasting a "swearword hangman" competition involving a child.

The Radio Authority says the broadcast led to a serious breach of rules on taste, decency and offence to public feeling.

The on-air competition called Swearword Hangman was broadcast at just before midnight on January 18.

A nine-year-old child took part by phone in the live on-air contest, in which callers guess the letters of a sexually explicit phrase that uses swear words.

The Radio Authority says the broadcast was "highly offensive, and inappropriate even in the context of adult alternative comedy".

Chairman Richard Hooper says Virgin Radio has acknowledged the seriousness of the complaint received; has made no attempt to excuse the content of the live broadcast; and told the authority it has taken steps to prevent it happening again.

Mr Hooper adds: "Without that immediate response, the members of the authority are clear that the sanctions imposed would have been even higher."

A Virgin Radio spokesman says: "'Virgin Radio acknowledges that Jon Holmes' broadcast was completely inappropriate and unacceptable.

"While the nature of this show broadcast after 11pm was irreverent and known for its close to the edge humour, station guidelines were not followed and on this occasion Jon went too far.

"We regret the on air misjudgement of Jon Holmes and have removed the show from the Virgin Radio Schedule."

Story filed: 08:33 Tuesday 19th March 2002

What's the fun, if they aren't going to tell us what the phrase was.......

[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 3.20.2002]

R-rated movie costs Gwinnett teachers their jobs
Mel Brooks film was shown to high school students

By ANDREA JONES
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Two South Gwinnett High School teachers have been forced to resign for showing a bawdy Mel Brooks movie to some special education students.

Greg Runyan and Jack Pollock, who taught students with emotional and behavioral problems, showed Brooks' "History of the World Part 1" to about six high schoolers during two class periods March 8.

The 1981 comedy takes an R-rated romp though historical happenings. It stars Gregory Hines and is narrated by Orson Welles.

A South Gwinnett student told an administrator they'd watched the movie, and the teachers were removed from the classroom the next day, said schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach.

"The school turned it over to [the school system's] Human Resources Department," Roach said. "The teachers resigned in the midst of the investigation."

Pollock, who also was an assistant football coach, was a first-year teacher in the Gwinnett school system. Runyan had been at South Gwinnett since August 2000.

Runyan, reached at his Snellville home Tuesday night, refused to comment.

School officials reported the incident to the Professional Standards Commission, the state agency that oversees teacher certification, and to the Department of Children and Family Services, Roach said.

DFACS is routinely alerted in cases involving inappropriate conduct in schools, Roach said.

"We're looking into the issue because of the nature of the movie," she said.

Blockbuster Video describes the comedy as rated "R" for nudity and language. It also lists it as inappropriate for children.