Shock-Jock Antics Stir Up More Tough Talk by FCC

Making up reports about the death of Britney Spears, castrating a pig or having a lewd conversation with a porn star--shock jocks are continually pushing the limits to show that nothing is sacred. But after a stunt in which a couple were charged with having sex during Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a pair of New York DJs are finding out that their bosses and regulators think otherwise.

WNEW-FM afternoon hosts Opie & Anthony, who had been off the air all week, were fired Thursday, while their bosses at the New York talk station have been suspended by Infinity Radio, the outlet’s parent company. the Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation Thursday in response to a complaint from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“I expect this complaint to be on the fast-track at the commission,” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement, adding that he’s received “many outraged e-mails and phone calls” about the incident.

“The FCC has a responsibility to ensure that the indecency laws of the United States are being vigorously enforced. If these complaints and press accounts prove true, this commission should consider the strongest enforcement action possible against this station, up to and including revocation of the station’s license.”

But apart from some notoriety and possibly a fine, Infinity probably won’t be effected by the incident, said Christopher H. Sterling, professor of media and public affairs and of telecommunication at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

“I think Copps is right, but he is in a minority in a strongly deregulatory commission,” said Sterling, who added that he’d be very surprised if the four-member FCC voted a hearing or threatened the license renewal for WNEW. “It just isn’t going to happen, short of a huge public or congressional uproar.”

The St. Patrick’s stunt was part of an ongoing contest at the “Opie & Anthony” show, in which points and prizes were awarded to couples having intercourse in the riskiest places. On Aug. 15, during a Mass celebrating the Feast of the Assumption, New York police entered the cathedral and arrested a Virginia couple and comedian Paul Mercurio, who was reportedly giving WNEW listeners a play-by-play of the assignation via cell phone. The couple, Brian Florence, 37, and Loretta Lynn Harper, 35, were charged with public lewdness, while Mercurio was cited with acting in concert.

Gregg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia were back on the air the next day but then were replaced by reruns this week. WNEW vice president and general manager Ken Stevens and program director Jeremy Coleman were suspended. On Thursday, a statement from Infinity said that the show had been canceled “based on recent events.”

An earlier statement from the company had said that neither Infinity nor WNEW “in any way condone the actions that took place last week.”

“We have taken steps to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.... Once again, we apologize to all of those who were offended,” continued the release from Infinity, which owns more than 180 stations nationwide, including KFWB-AM (980), KNX-AM (1070), KCBS-FM (93.1), KTWV-FM (94.7), KLSX-FM (97.1), KRTH-FM (101.1) and KROQ-FM (106.7) in Los Angeles.

But the company and station hired the duo specifically because they’re outrageous, said KABC-AM (790) morning host Ken Minyard, who railed about the incident on his program and in an interview added that he, too, expects little to come of it.

“To lay all the blame on these two guys is missing the point,” he said, contending that the station was aware of the ongoing contest and knew what they were getting with Opie & Anthony.

In June, the FCC fined the duo $21,000 for three broadcasts dealing with incest, child abuse and teen sex.

The pair were fired from a Boston station in 1998 after an April Fool’s joke in which they said Mayor Tom Menino had been killed in a car crash. Fatal accident hoaxes seem to reach the threshold for pink slips. Last year, a Dallas radio station sacked a pair of DJs who said Spears was dead and that her then-boyfriend, singer Justin Timberlake, was comatose after a car crash. Panicked fans inundated L.A.-area hospitals and emergency agencies with calls.

Animal activists were aghast, but a DJ in Florida was acquitted of cruelty charges in March after a pig was castrated on his show.

And Chicago DJ Erich “Mancow” Muller has racked up $42,000 in fines from the FCC since April 2001 after complaints about lewd songs on his program, graphic talks with an adult-film actress and other women, along with other incidents.

Minyard noted that, after Opie & Anthony got fired in Boston, they went to a bigger market in New York--”they got a promotion.” And, until Thursday, the show had been broadcast in 17 other cities too, including Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Boston, on a different station.

“Unless there are consequences, this is going to keep happening. What are the limits? Until the public gets sufficiently outraged, it will keep happening,” said Minyard, who has been at KABC for all but three of the past 33 years.

“I have had a chance to see the changes in broadcast over the years,” he said. “There’s never been a time when, if you wanted to go that next step, you couldn’t have found an audience. It’s part of the coarsening of our culture.”

In February, Copps--the most outspoken member of the commission regarding indecency and obscenity issues--challenged broadcasters to clean up their act and self-regulate, before the FCC or Congress has to step in. At the time, he accused them of trolling “the depths of decadence” and engaging in a “race to the bottom.” Nothing happened. The National Assn. of Broadcasters said members already abided by its “statement of principles,” which urges broadcasters to avoid exploiting violence, glamorizing drug use or airing “prurient or morbid” sexual material.

“ ‘Race to the bottom’ is, unfortunately, a good way to put it,” Sterling said. “I think that race will continue until and unless there is some kind of enforcement action, which seems very unlikely.”

Copps has criticized his own agency for having “a dismal record of going after offenders” and forcing listeners to collect the evidence needed to bring a complaint against a broadcaster. And Sterling said broadcasters will continue what they’re doing unless faced with drastic consequences. He noted that Infinity only settled the record $1.7 million in fines levied against Howard Stern in 1995 when the FCC held up action on station ownership changes.

“Clearly, the programs make vastly more money than the puny fines. And few listeners even hear about the fines, let alone care,” Sterling said.

“I think that the larger owners, including Infinity, see such fines as merely a cost of doing business. As long as the threat is minor, and not to the license itself, this will continue.”