Radio station fights “Shady” fine

KKMG-FM in Colorado Springs has received a $7,000 indecency fine for playing an edited version of controversial artist Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” at all hours throughout spring and summer 2000. According to Reuters, the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau determined that the edited version of the song was still provocative and raunchy. But Citadel lawyers, a parent company of KKMG-FM, said society had accepted the Eminem song and its evidence shows that it made nationwide play lists, spent 16 weeks on Billboard’s Top 40, and won this year’s Grammy for rap solo performance. No other station has been fined for playing the song.
The FCC June 1 indecency ruling “raises the specter of a dominant culture exerting its power to bar those groups who do not share its mores from the public forum,” Citadel Communications said in appeal papers filed with the regulatory agency, Reuters reports.