Sumner Redstone and Mel Karmazin may not mind if their Infinity Broadcasting
Corp. radio stations treat incest and sex with minors as a joke, but the Federal
Communications Commission doesn't approve of the idea.
Infinity's WNEW(FM) New York was fined $21,000 by the FCC Friday for three
broadcasts that made graphic references to incest and sex with underage girls.
All three fines targeted episodes of the Opie and Anthony Show aired in
November 2000 and January 2001.
The first was based on a complaint against a song titled "Teen Week" that
portrayed a conversation between a man and his young daughter as she purportedly
performed oral sex on him.
In another segment, the hosts persuade a 17-year-old caller to rub the
telephone against her pubic hair so they could guess what type of pubic haircut
she had.
Finally, the WNEW show aired a song in which a man declares he's "horny for
little girls" between ages two and three, liked the girls' "round butts" and
"liked to ram them."
The complaints were based on taped excerpts of the programs.
Infinity argued that the complaints should be dismissed either because the
FCC had no way of determining whether the excerpts accurately reflected the
broadcasts or because the material itself did not meet the legal definition of
indecency.
The commission has defined indecent speech as language that depicts sexual
organs and activities in a patently offensive way according to contemporary
community standards.
Indecent broadcasts are forbidden between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children
are most likely to be in the audience.
Infinity may appeal the fine.
