"Marconi" and "Tiny" from the KNRK-FM morning show were terminated Thursday in response to angry listener reaction to the on-air segment. The DJs played the audio of Berg's execution and inserted musical accompaniment while laughing during Berg's screams.
The station, owned by Entercom Radio, was not only justified in firing these guys but stands as an example of Radio still having a conscience.
People who like exciting and interesting radio, also want air personalities who sometimes take chances. But on-air performers are the first tier of responsibility and must always measure the implications of their actions.
This stupid stunt was the epitome of indecency on the air. Yet, if Entercom had not policed itself, the F.C.C. certainly wouldn’t have issued any fines or warnings. After all, the program’s segment wasn’t about sex or excretory organs...it was just violence.
Mention “indecency” and most of us immediately respond with our default thinking, assuming indecency can only be about sex, genitals, and whatever else happens between our legs.
Similary, it seems the F.C.C. and Congress are obsessive compulsive when it comes to worrying about somebody faking an orgasm on the air for a prize because "the children might hear it". Yet, airing a dying man’s blood curdling screams? Not really much of a worry to them. Go on kids, off to school. Have a nice day.
The FCC has defined broadcast indecency as “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community broadcast standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.”
Airing the audio from the Berg video the way the KNRK-FM morning show did, doesn’t fall under the F.C.C.’s definition of indecency.
Yet, any reasonable person would agree that airing a dying man’s screams buffeted by jokes and musical accompaniment, certainly has no socially redeeming value, would most likely upset children listening and is at the very least, the actions of callous people who are not ready for prime time.
Next to what Marconi and Tiny did at KNRK-FM, all of a sudden some of the recent fines levied by the F.C.C. for “indecent” content seem less egregious.
At least nobody dies when Howard Stern makes a joke about his penis.
