FCC Letter (Star & Buckwild)

September 30, 2005

Federal Communications Commission
Enforcement Bureau
Investigations and Hearings Division
445 12th St., SW, Room 3-B443
Washington, DC 20554
Attn: Kevin Martin, Chair

Dear Chairman Martin:

We write on the behalf of a well-organized group of black professionals in the Philadelphia area who are disgusted with the Star and Buckwild Morning Show on Power 99, a station owned by Clear Channel Radio. Specifically, we are offended that the radio station and the hosts who refer to themselves as Star and Buckwild use and tolerate the use of Nigger/Niggah/Nigga (N-word) and the reference to women as b*tches (b-word) and variations of the word whore or ho (h-word). In context, the use of the N-word has been used in varying forms to refer to black people, and the negative female expletives have been used to refer to black women. Our stand is that such language is profane, and not beneficial to the psyche of the African American community, particularly African-American children.

The FCC has defined profanity as including language that denot[es] certain of those personally reviling epithets naturally tending to provoke violent resentment or denoting language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance. See Complaints Against Various Broadcast Licensees Regarding Their Airing of the Golden Globe Award Program, FCC 04-43 (released: March 18, 2004) (Golden Globe Awards). In announcing this definition, the FCC ruled that the single use of the F-word in the context of a live awards program was profane. The FCC further stated that it, depending on the context, will also consider under the definition of profanity the F-Word and those words (or variants thereof) that are as highly offensive as the F-Word, to the extent such language is broadcast between 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The FCC announced that it will analyze other potentially profane words or phrases on a case-by-case basis.

In that ruling, the FCC overturned the Enforcement Bureaus October 2003 decision and found that the use of the F-Word during the 2004 broadcast of the Golden Globes violates the federal statute. The FCC announced that its ruling should send a signal to the broadcast industry that the gratuitous use of such vulgar language on broadcast television will not be tolerated. In that decision, the FCC afforded parties fair warning and due process such that this highly offensive word should not be used. Parties were put on notice that they could face significant penalties for similar violations. We believe that this is a similar violation.

In the instance of the Star and Buckwild morning show, there are too many instances to enumerate how many times the n-word, the b-word and the h-word have been casually, callously and repeatedly used at times between 6am and 9am, when children have ready exposure to such language. To be clear, such references occur on an almost-daily basis. But for the purpose of specificity, just today alone, the hosts referred to Comedian Steve Harvey as a faggot ass nigger, Martha Stewart as a white bitch and made other comments like you could fry an egg on that niggers head. Just this morning, there were at least 15 references to the term Nigger. While the Supreme Court has ruled that the FCC should rule cautiously so as not to have a chilling effect on free speech, we believe that the FCC as it did with the use of the F-word is empowered to draw a clear line to make clear when profane speech will not be tolerated.

Considering the history of oppression in this country and the storied history of the way that the n-word has been used to degrade African Americans, we are concerned about the impact of that word, as well as the b-word and h-word as references to African Americans. We invite you to denounce the use of such words as profane and unacceptable, as they promote prejudice, degradation and unfair treatment among races and ethnicities in America.

With kind regards,