The secret word, Groucho, was F-U-C-K. Can I say that on Journalspace? We'll find out! (Update: The mysterious Journalspace Development says: "To address your question: you are allowed to say "fuck" on journalspace, but only if you also expose your right breast.") I've been keeping quiet about this till my story runs, but KCRW just sent out a weirdly dainty inhouse memo/press release saying that "she uttered a certain banned word that could have cost us our license with the FCC." Therefore the fateful, f-word Feb. 29 "Loh Life" was the last one for KCRW.

So now you can't even say "fuck" in an interoffice communique that's talking about the use of the word "fuck?" Geez. I mean sheesh. Or...I don't know...fill in the nonoffensive word of your choice here.

Regular readers of this blog know that Sandra and I are old friends. In fact, that's her in the bathing suit with my daughter in the fuzzy little picture to the right. (One advantage of never updating your photo gallery -- eventually the pictures will be timely again!)

I have the whole story -- or at least the whole story so far -- in my media column for tomorrow's (Thursday's) L.A. CityBeat. The only info I'm going to put here from that piece is that the "fuck" on the air was an accident: the engineer forgot to bleep it out from the prerecorded spot, which both he and Sandra had certainly meant to do.  

I'll tell you what I think about this, and I'm not scooping my own column because I didn't have room there to go into analysis, but I think the problem is not really the FCC, but broadcasters overreacting to the FCC.

The term being used now about bad language on the air is zero-tolerance, which reminds me of a Reason story I did about how new zero-tolerance drug laws are keeping kids from asthma inhalers in schools. But, as I discovered while researching that story, the government never intended to keep kids from their inhalers; in fact, many, many states have even enacted laws specifically saying that zero-tolerance drug policy does not apply to inhalers. The problem is some officious and hysterical school administrators who insist on behaving otherwise.

Which brings us back to KCRW. They say "we have received many complaints as a result" of Sandra accidentally saying "fuck" on the air. Actually, she says they told her they got zero complaints the first time her spot aired -- at 7:35am Sunday morning, because who's listening then? -- and then a few complaints after it repeated at 9:35am.

But how likely is it that the FCC would have yanked KCRW's license, or even fined them, for an accidental "fuck," uttered by someone who's not exactly a shock jock? If you have expertise on the FCC and how they'd probably react to Sandra's accidental "fuck," please leave me a comment.

Update to the above: No better expert than First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh, who's just written one of his typically enlightening posts (e.g.: long and lawyerly, yet clear and and engaging!) about KCRW's hamhanded gaffe. An excerpt:

I think Cathy is quite right; though I'm not an expert on all the details of the FCC's rather complex stand on broadcast "indecency" [and he links to the FCC's rules on his site], the FCC's summary seems to suggest that an isolated "fuck" in the usual TsingLohvian monologue (I've heard her many times, and like her work, which is generally not aimed at titillation or shock value) would probably not be punishable.

Extra snaps to Eugene for coining the word "TsingLohvian."

Sandra's starting to get calls from the press now that KCRW has sent out its announcement. But I've asked her not to return those calls till tomorrow, and one of her kids has a fever so she's busy anyway. So for a little while at least, my piece on this will be the only one out there.

Update:Actually, Sandra's and my old boss at Buzz magazine, Allan Mayer, now handles this sort of thing professionally at the crisis p.r. firm Sitrick & Co. And as he told me, "You always want to preempt." So Sandra did talk to Greg Braxton of the L.A. Times and maybe they'll have a piece in tomorrow. Or maybe not as soon as that; it is the Times, after all. I hear that KCRW has clammed up about the whole thing at this point. Probably they're thinking of hiring a crisis p.r. firm of their own.

Allan also wants to start an anti-KCRW pledge drive: That is, listeners who just promised money in the station's recent pledge drive should refuse to honor those pledges till KCRW apologizes and offers Sandra her spot back. Not a bad idea! Allan also told me: "[Programming director] Ruth Seymour's behavior here is contrary to everything the station is supposed to stand for. As a liberal, I'm ashamed of her."
     

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