Clear Channel Dropping the Howard Stern Show

Yahoo! News ^ | 4/8/04 | Reuters

[imfleck]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal regulators said on Thursday they will seek fines totaling $495,000 against six Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations for airing indecent comments made on the popular Howard Stern show.

The Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) said the amount represented the maximum possible under current law of $27,500 for each of the total of eighteen violations.

Clear Channel announced it was pulling the show from its airwaves permanently after failing to get assurances that the program would comply with decency regulations from its syndicator -- Infinity Broadcasting, a unit of Viacom Inc.

Clear Channel first yanked Stern from the six stations in February after complaints about a discussion on his show that included explicit sex talk and a racist remark.

Infinity declined to comment on Clear Channel's decision.

The FCC (news - web sites)'s proposed fine marks the first time the agency has counted as a separate violation each indecent comment uttered on air -- something it warned broadcasters about a year ago.

"Today's decision is a step forward toward imposing meaningful fines," FCC commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement.

The radio stations subject to the proposed penalties were in Cocoa Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; Honeoye Falls, New York; Pittsburgh and San Diego.

The FCC has been cracking down on indecent broadcasts after an outcry from parents and lawmakers. It accelerated its action after Janet Jackson (news)'s breast was exposed during her performance on the national television broadcast of the Super Bowl in February.

Federal rules bar airing obscene material and limit the airing of indecent comments, such as explicit and graphic sexual or excretory references, to late-night broadcasts when children are less likely to be listening or watching.

"We had hoped to return Mr. Stern's show to the air free from indecent content," said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio.

"Unfortunately, the FCC's latest action, combined with deafening silence from the Stern show on their future plans to comply with the law, leave us no choice but to abandon the program for good," Hogan said.

[imfleck]

Figures, another attack on our constitutional rights.

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[verity]

He could be reinstated if he got a decent haircut! :~)

[cyborg]

Clear Channel does not need to keep dead weight. Drop him. Howard is becoming a bitter ole nag anyway.

[Dolphy]

Do I have a constitutional right to the public airwaves?

[Xenalyte]

Stern has no Constitutional right to be heard. He can speak all he wants to - no one is stopping him.

[cripplecreek]

Im still trying to figure out what twisted formula he uses to connect the president to his firing.

[cmsgop]

This is why they suspended him, they new this was coming down the road,

[cyborg]

me too... I don't get it.

[b4its2late]

Breaking News?

[Vision Thing]

Figures, another attack on our constitutional rights.

Nope.

This was a business decision, not a political one.

The decision was based on the violation of existing laws.

[cmsgop]

You are right, under Clinton he got the biggest FCC fine ever.Did he rail against Clinton? Noooooooooooooo!

[MagnusMaximus1]

No, Clear Channel made a smart business decision as a supposedly responsible business should do in the free marketplace. Also, I'm glad to see that the FCC is finally enforcing the current laws.

Howard Stern is a schmuck and a piece of sh*t whose career should have ended a long time ago.

[claudiustg]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Howard!

I can't find anywhere in the Constitution, the right to a particular soapbox or a guarantee of employment.

[Dan from Michigan]

Federal regulators said on Thursday they will seek fines totaling $495,000 against six Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations for airing indecent comments made on the popular Howard Stern show.

UNELECTED JACKBOOTED THUGS AT IT AGAIN.

[cmsgop]

new=knew

[shield]

This is the company Mike McCaul's father-in-law is Chairman of.

[thackney]

Federal regulators said on Thursday they will seek fines totaling $495,000 against six Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations for airing indecent comments made on the popular Howard Stern show.

Howard Stern is carried on more than six radio stations. Has anyone heard if the other radio stations that carried him are receiving the same fines?

[GreatOne]

Disagree - they should have done this a long time ago. The First Amendment is a guarantor against suppression of political speech by the government. The same liberal f---s that gave us Roe v. Wade, et. al, are the same ones who declared nude dancing a protected form of speech. Really - you think that the Framers really meant to protect the right of some whore in a thong to dance on a table as part of free speech? Of course not.

Howard Stern is simply a pornographer on free radio air waves, and should be shut down. This guy's whole act is built upon bringing in hookers, lesbians, and porn stars to his studio and talking explicitly about sex. I don't give a rat's ass what the morons in the black robes said - that's ain't protected speech.

[MagnusMaximus1]

Catholic ping!

Let's begin to celebrate the start of the end of the career of that racist, bigot Howard Stern. His on-the-air, anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, and to a lesser extent, anti-Mel Gibson tirades will soon be flushed to the sewers of Hollywood history.