Boston Strong (Language), The FCC and Sports

My four years at North Central College on the WONC staff taught me a lot about the world of broadcasting. On air shifts were the most important thing, of course, but there was an academic side to it, with readings weekly about different broadcast-related topics, and almost all of them had something to do with the FCC. Mostly, it was about things they could fine you for (read: don't do this at WONC, lest we get levied a heavy fine and the station has to shut down), and these things appeared on tests during my time there (I take responsibility for this my senior year, since I wrote the tests).

On the broadcasting side of things in terms of being on the air (with a good concentration in sports), there were probably three major lessons I learned.

1. "W" is pronounced "Double-You", and anyone who pronounces it differently will be promptly corrected. It's John Madormo's pet peeve (so that's probably where I picked it up) and it probably put you on his hit list.
2. Don't even speculate possible reasons for why a door in a press box slams shut on air. You will incur the wrath of Naperville North's "Press Box Mom". For the record, I wasn't the speculator, but I was there when it happened, and being both the Assistant Sports Director and the guy calling the Huskies' football game the following week (against Central, no less), I was put in the unenviable position of trying to clean up that mess with the Press Box Mom (which ultimately was resolved).
3. "If you wouldn't say it to your grandmother, don't say it on air." -"ancient" radio proverb, regarding the use of strong language in a broadcast setting.

It's that last one that has a lot of people buzzing after the Boston Red Sox game at Fenway yesterday.

Editor's note: Video does contain strong language. But then again, you probably knew that based on the title of this post and my writing so far. Thought it would be fair to give you a warning if you skipped ahead to this part.

We were taught early on at North Central about how drastically obscenity laws have changed. In 2006, Congress increased the maximum penalty for obscenity tenfold, to a whopping $325,000, so this was in effect when I started broadcasting. A lot of this stemmed from the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show several years back (I was a freshman in high school when that happened). The penalties went way up, but the standards really haven't changed.

While what Big Papi said before yesterday's game technically wasn't describing anything sexual or involving other bodily functions (other than taking the definition of the F-bomb literally), because this occurred during daytime hours and not in the "safe harbor" time from 10pm-6am, dropping an F-bomb would normally be cause for fines levied against the stations that carried the game. Sports can have some exceptions for natural sound being captured in the course of the game (one of the most notable was Steve Kerr yelling "F***ing unbelievable!" after the Bulls won their 6th title. (Again, this video does contain said profanity.) I don't believe NBC or any affiliates were fined for this, though things like this are why the seven-second delay exist in broadcasting today.

Amazingly, the chairman of the FCC decided that he wasn't going to pursue any action for this incident. While the F-bomb is something that should be left out of one's vocabulary, given the context and the circumstances around this speech I can definitely understand why Ortiz felt the need to use such strong language. And I wholeheartedly agree with the chairman's decision. Given the craziness of the past week, it's been amazing to see the strength and resolve of the people of Boston and an anthem on Wednesday at the TD Garden that rivaled just about any other anthem that's ever been done. This week brought a lot of us together as we forgot about our differences, be they political, religious, and in the teams we root for. I'm glad the Red Sox won yesterday. They didn't just win for their team, they won for their city and to an extent, for America.

"This is our f***ing city. And no one is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong." May David Ortiz' words ring on as we celebrate what it means to be an American, and enjoy our freedoms every single day.