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Clear Channel's do not play from the worst day

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Bryan O'Donnell

So, what details can you provide about the national mandated do not playlist from the worst day of this century?

I'd like to know the reasoning for some strange choices, at least to me, like Brooklyn Bridge "Worst that could happen".

It was Manhattan not Brooklyn, not a bridge, and so what if the singer is singing about a girl he loves marrying a guy who wants the stability of marriage, accepting that the other guy is her best choice because he will never get married, it's just not his style, but even though he has made peace with this, it's the worst thing that could happen to him, him, so what?

Thanks for any info. I love that song so I'm curious about it specifically but the topic can be anything about the they say don't play.
 
Probably 9-11? If that's the case, there were a lot of tracks that didn't get played for a couple months. Drowning Pool's Let The Bodies Hit The Floor was climbing the rock charts and dived. Same thing with Saliva's Click Click Boom.
 
boombox4 said:
Probably 9-11? If that's the case, there were a lot of tracks that didn't get played for a couple months. Drowning Pool's Let The Bodies Hit The Floor was climbing the rock charts and dived. Same thing with Saliva's Click Click Boom.
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Could be you're right. Kind of a cryptic question about a song from originally what, 1967? 9/11 happened twenty-three years ago and they're just now thinking about this one song and how it related to that day for one radio group?
Man, I need another cup of coffee this morning.
 
The way I remember it one radio company had a list, and there was talk in the industry about restricting the songs for a few weeks. I don't recall any such 'bans' or restrictions being industry wide, but a couple songs (like the ones I mentioned) did have some reduced airplay for a while. Where I worked I think that we still put the songs on the CDs (which we sent out every week with the new releases), but there might have been notices from the programmers to the client stations to use their own discretion -- something like that. Then again, this was 23 years ago, so I could be remembering some of the details incorrectly.
 
Bryan O'Donnell said:
So, what details can you provide about the national mandated do not playlist from the worst day of this century?
Click to expand...
Most groups sent out emails or did phone calls to their PDs and GMs to watch for offensive song titles or lyrics about disasters. Since by that date most stations did their music logs one or more days in advance, the idea was to catch anything already scheduled and edit those logs immediately.

Later in the day, several groups circulated lists of songs that "might be considered offensive or insensitive". It sure was not a "national mandate". And it was not arbitrary.
Bryan O'Donnell said:
I'd like to know the reasoning for some strange choices, at least to me, like Brooklyn Bridge "Worst that could happen".
Click to expand...
The title describes that day. "Worst" says it all. When something like the 9/11 terrorist attack happens, most of us prefer to err on the side of caution.

A lot of us suggested certain words be avoided; anything that referred to attacks or explosions.
Bryan O'Donnell said:
It was Manhattan not Brooklyn, not a bridge, and so what if the singer is singing about a girl he loves marrying a guy who wants the stability of marriage, accepting that the other guy is her best choice because he will never get married, it's just not his style, but even though he has made peace with this, it's the worst thing that could happen to him, him, so what?
Click to expand...
"Worst that could happen" describes that day. And Brooklyn is a borough of New York City, but that is not the point... it is about referring to losing a girl as the worst thing that could happen when the events of that day were far and vastly worse.
Bryan O'Donnell said:
Thanks for any info. I love that song so I'm curious about it specifically but the topic can be anything about the they say don't play.
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Who cares, really, about which songs? Stations and groups reacted very rapidly to eliminate songs whose titles and lyrics were inappropriate as well as suggesting caution in on-air vocabulary that might include words that could be associated with the terror attack on the United States.
 
boombox4 said:
Then again, this was 23 years ago, so I could be remembering some of the details incorrectly.
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I was on a plane at LAX that was seconds away from the "rotate" moment when the flight was aborted. We were scooted off the plane and I immediately drove to the stations I was working with and helped adapt programming appropriately. We then conferenced with our other stations to offer suggestions on possibly inappropriate songs and things that should not be said on the air.

In meetings and conventions soon after that attack, exhibit hall chat revealed that all of us at all the companies, big and small, had done some kind of steps to make sure that songs and comments that might be inappropriate were somehow controlled. So I am guessing that nearly every station, right down to the local level, did something about this.
 
boombox4 said:
The way I remember it one radio company had a list, and there was talk in the industry about restricting the songs for a few weeks. I don't recall any such 'bans' or restrictions being industry wide, but a couple songs (like the ones I mentioned) did have some reduced airplay for a while.
Click to expand...
There was certainly no industry-wide coordinated effort by the NAB or other industry groups. But each station or group of stations reacted almost instantaneously and removed sensitive songs. This was apparently almost 100% universal. Where it was not done was likely because the station owner or manager just did not think about it in that moment of fear and emotion. I even heard that one group had said "no songs that sing about airplanes" so even ones like "Daniel" were suspended for a while.
 
DavidEduardo said:
There was certainly no industry-wide coordinated effort by the NAB or other industry groups. But each station or group of stations reacted almost instantaneously and removed sensitive songs. This was apparently almost 100% universal.
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It just seems like basic decency and being thoughtful regarding the emotions that listeners were likely to be going through. I'm kind of amazed that this would even be questioned.
 
Mark Roberts said:
It just seems like basic decency and being thoughtful regarding the emotions that listeners were likely to be going through. I'm kind of amazed that this would even be questioned.
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Absolutely. It was the only possible reaction to the first attack on American soil since the early 1800's.

This is being painted as censorship when in fact it is, quite simply, respect and patriotism.
 
By no means am I implying some kind of censorship, I apologize if that's what was conveyed in my initial comment.

I simply was looking for some clarity on this because what I read about it on Wiki was very suspect.

It's a great source for info, but you can never just go with what it says. So this is how I use that tool, they made me aware of this, so now I go to more trustworthy sources to get the proper information to learn from.

I love radio history, it's so fascinating and there are an endless amount of stories for a radio nerd like me, but I would bet my life that good idea starved entertainment sources who are stuck in just rehashing shows, movies, characters, comics from the past, could find a treasure trove from the O.Gs that lurk and post at this place! I mean it's worked before, radio based stories/movies, to varying degrees, (KHJ BossRadio Los Bravos... that was some kind of recent movie lol) I know that Hollyweird could drink from this well at least once more!

Now, a radio 9/11 movie? I kinda feel like singing Mc Hammer.

But I got to listen to New York radio that day and the weeks after. I was proud to be a br..brat that loves radio! Elvis, Howard etc It was simply beyond words to even attempt to describe it.
 
One of my most vivid radio memories of 9/11 came that night, when WDRC-FM Hartford resumed its musical (classic hits) programming after carrying coverage from then-sister station WOR New York all day. During the first hour, Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" was played amid several other ostensibly patriotic songs, including Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" and Charlie Daniels' "In America." It wasn't too long before the DJ interrupted the set with an on-air apology for having played the Springsteen song, which, despite its rousing chorus, is an indictment of the way the government treated its Vietnam vets upon their return, as seen through the eyes of one very bitter veteran. "Born in the USA" continues to be appropriated by some politicians on the far right to this day, as ignorance runs just as freely as blind patriotism through their veins.
 
CTListener said:
One of my most vivid radio memories of 9/11 came that night, when WDRC-FM Hartford resumed its musical (classic hits) programming after carrying coverage from then-sister station WOR New York all day. During the first hour, Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" was played amid several other ostensibly patriotic songs, including Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" and Charlie Daniels' "In America." It wasn't too long before the DJ interrupted the set with an on-air apology for having played the Springsteen song, which, despite its rousing chorus, is an indictment of the way the government treated its Vietnam vets upon their return, as seen through the eyes of one very bitter veteran. "Born in the USA" continues to be appropriated by some politicians on the far right to this day, as ignorance runs just as freely as blind patriotism through their veins.
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Do you have a source for examples of which "far right" politicians are currently appropriating "Born in the USA?"
 
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