Locality Switch

Try and define the current community standards for decency. It’s pretty hard, maybe even impossible. Where do you draw the line on what is acceptable to say and do on radio, and what isn’t? How do you know what your boundaries are, when they aren’t clearly set out.

Both Community and Commercial radio have clauses in their relevant codes of practice to explain that programs broadcast must meet certain standards of decency.

1.5 (a) All program content must meet contemporary standards of decency, having regard to the likely characteristics of the audience of the licensee’s service.

[ Commercial Radio Australia - Codes of Practice & Guidelines ]

3.2 We will attempt to avoid censorship where possible. However, in our programming decisions we will consider our community interest, context, degree of explicitness, the possibility of alarming the listener, the potential for distress or shock, prevailing Indigenous laws or community standards and the social importance of the broadcast.

[ Community Radio Broadcasting Codes of Practice ]

But what is deemed acceptable? Let’s take swearing as an example. What words would you anticipate you couldn’t say on air? I would think that almost all swearing would be a no-go, except for the lightest swear words. When I tuned into a commercial station last week, heaps of songs in their countdown program contained meny words which I wouldn’t thing were suitable to broadcast in the early evening. I’m sure this isn’t the first time their music contained these words – it must have been happening for a while.

But yet I don’t hear a public outcry about it.

Nor did I hear a huge amount of whinging about the woeful contents of Kyle and Jackie-O’s brekky show, until that fateful morning containing a lie detector. Media Watch must have been the only media outlet I saw complaining about their stunts. So, does that mean most people don’t have a problem with it? Or just don’t care?

All of this must mean that people think swearing is acceptable for broadcast. Yet, whenever we have an incident of someone saying a naughty word on air on 2CCR, a flood of complains ensues. Something’s up? What’s so different?

The answer, it seems, is: “audience”. The audience your station has determines what you can get away with. If you have an audience consisting primarily of those in their twenties, you can get away with heaps. But, if your audience is filled with families or slightly older people, you can’t get away with anywhere near as much.

This still doesn’t answer my question about community standards, but I don’t think it ever will be answered, unless we turn into a communist state.

In radio, one size never fits all. What is suitable for one station isn’t suitable for the other. Just because you hear swearing and questionable content on one station doesn’t mean you can get away with it on another station. There’s no role models in radio – everyone has to be unique.

It’s been a long time since I have listened to a commercial station for an extended period of time. Occasionally I would surf the bands, and stay with a station for the duration of a song which I found catchy, but overall I have just been listening to community radio. To me, it’s much more personal and much more enjoyable.

This week I decided to listen to a commercial radio station for a couple of hours in the evening. Why? I’ve been on holidays, and decided to do something different for a bit. Break out of the routine, and all of that stuff.

Now I remember why I don’t listen to Commercial Radio.

The station I decided to listen to was 2Day FM, and the show which was on at the time was the Hot 30 countdown. I haven’t listened to one of these countdown type shows for a while, but I was under the impression that they typically consisted of music. What did I hear? Anything but music! With so much talking and phone ins happening, they might as well make it a talkback show.

After listening to this show for a couple of hours, I really came to appreciate community radio. Commercial radio is so, well, commercial. It may seem a stupid observation to make, but there are just so many ads! I literally couldn’t tell the difference between ads, show promos, sweepers, talk breaks, competitions and the music.

Everything just blends together into one very very tight package. There’s no room to breathe. From one aspect, this is a credit to the people who produce the show – such tight integration doesn’t happen magically, and i know it takes quite a bit of work to achieve.

However, I believe there should be a line drawn somewhere. When is enough, enough? Sure, there are bills to pay and shareholders to please, but in some ways I believe it would be more beneficial to loosen things up a tad. I was quite confused when trying to distinguish what was an ad or not. I eventually concluded that if it wasn’t a song, then it must be an ad :)

For once, I am greatful that we have community radio which is limited in the amount of sponsorships which can be played. I am grateful that we don’t play the same twelve songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

Community radio is a breath of fresh air, but it wasn’t until I ventured back into commercial radio that I realised this.

Will I listen to another commercial station again? Sure. But it won’t be for entertainment. It will be to analyse what they are doing, and to learn as much as I possibly can about on air presentation. Even though I want to be a technician, I still think it’s important to learn about what actually goes to air. After all, that’s all the average listener hears.

This morning, commercial radio stations around the nation gathered to celebrate the launch of Digital Radio. In cities around the nation, joint outside broadcasts were held.

In Sydney, the venue was Martin Place. At 7.40am, they did a roadblock across every station, broadcasting the same audio segment. From the Digital Radio Plus news release:

In a world first, the metropolitan commercial radio industry effectively road blocked Australian metropolitan radio at 7.40 am today, when they simultaneously broadcast a four minute audio piece featuring competing commercial breakfast show presenters in each market describing their most memorable radio moment or a moment they would like to hear in the future, over a re-working of the iconic Australian song, You’re The Voice.

Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Joan Warner said the aim of the Radio United outside broadcasts and the playing of the audio piece was to demonstrate the importance of radio in Australian listeners’ lives.

“Competing broadcasters have come together today in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to celebrate the start of digital radio in Australia. The industry has united for this event and in the audio piece to illustrate the power of radio broadcasting and the effect it has on people,” said Ms Warner.

In case you missed it, the four minute audio segment can be downloaded off the internet. Sydney United Radio OB 20090806

Of course, no one was there from Community Radio. The metro community stations won’t get on DAB+ until next year, and who knows when the sub-metro and regional stations will be able to get access. Here’s some info from a CBAA press release:

The President of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, Deborah Welch says,

‘It is fantastic to see Digital Radio getting off the ground in Australia, and this is only the beginning. You’ll see a raft of new services coming through over the next year, and particularly the innovations that always come from community radio.’

Metropolitan community radio stations are starting later than their commercial and government funded counterparts because infrastructure funding, confirmed in the May 2009 budget, is arriving a year later than first expected.

There are more than 350 community radio stations around the country. While some are getting started on the first stage of Digital Radio, the broader sector keenly await the next phase of the roll out and looks forward to the opportunity to introduce Digital Radio in regional Australia and to sub metropolitan community radio services.

It’ll be fascinating to see what happens with all of this.