Fight Over the FM Dial

You are the faculty director of a university radio station at a large, public Midwestern university. The station includes a weekly three-hour student-produced program of rap music, under attack by a student group which claims that some of the music played on the show is deeply offensive. The group has asked you to pull the show and the DJ from the air, and threatens to picket the station and conduct a letter writing campaign to alumni and others, calling for the station to be closed if the show is not cancelled. When asked, the DJ defends the program, saying that rap music can be listened to in various ways and that the show includes nothing which is indecent or obscene. The DJ proposes offering the protesters a radio show of their own, in which they may play their selections. The other 20 station staff members, both professional and student, are squarely behind the DJ and sign a pledge saying they will quit en masse and call for your firing if you cancel the rap show.

The college president has asked you to come to her office in one hour to explain what you will do. What will you say to her?

Fight Over the FM Dial
Bill - 05:58pm Jan 20, 2000

Let's listen to a recording of a couple of the shows together. If we hear anything indecent or obscene we'll cancel the program. If not, it stays and we offer the opposing group equal time.

Deal?

radio Station
kenogodyahoo.com - 06:07pm Jan 20, 2000

I would stop the music. This is a college. The focus should be on studies. The students who like this music can buy their own cd's. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would consider this crisis a 1.

FM Dial
MPgrille - 10:21am Jan 24, 2000

There is a little dial on the side, it is for on and off. Or you can change the station to what you like. If the station or the DJ has said that they will give the othere side equal time and they say no, then no it is let the music play.

Grow up and turn off the radio
Rod Murray - 10:04am Jan 26, 2000

There is no way that i would pull the rap segment off the air. That request is childish. Rap music is popular. I'm not saying that everyone likes it. I'm not even saying that the majority of people like it. I am saying that it deserves air time as much as Alternative music, country music, or hard rock. It's time people started to grow up and realize that not everyone thinks and feels the same. Three hours that you can't listen to this station is not the end of the world. There are other stations and other things to do. You had your time, now let someone else listen to what they want. Toughen up and turn away. It's time people quit looking for things to complain about and got on with their lives.

Rap Radio
Greg - 03:32pm Jan 26, 2000

I'd keep the 3 hour Rap Show. In the city I live in, there is a college radio station that plays a WIDE variety of music. If I'm not liking what I am hearing at any given time, I just TURN IT OFF. No one is putting a gun to the listeners' head and forcing them to listen to