Song Brings Explicit Word to Airwaves : Radio: The title of one song is a term not even Howard Stern can use but, an executive notes, it’s not a word ruled indecent by the Supreme Court.

Even as Howard Stern and the radio stations that carry his morning show suffer the wrath and fines of the Federal Communications Commission for broadcasting allegedly indecent material, a few radio stations appear to be taking more liberties than ever in the kind of language they permit in popular songs.

Three mainstream stations in the Los Angeles area and about 40 others around the country are currently broadcasting comedian Denis Leary’s humorous song “Asshole,” whose chorus, “I’m an asshole,” is repeated dozens of times in three minutes. At one point, Leary even repeatedly spells out the word like a high school yell leader.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” said Greg Stevens, program director at KQLZ-FM (100.3), “and I didn’t think we would be playing a song like that. Or ‘Detachable Penis.’ ”

Leary’s song and the equally silly “Detachable Penis” by King Missile are among the most requested songs at radio stations that play them. In Los Angeles, KQLZ and KROQ-FM (106.7) are playing both songs, and KLOS-FM (95.5) is on occasion broadcasting the Leary tune. (MTV is airing a video of Leary’s song, but only between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.)

Carey Curelop, program director at KLOS, said that he and the station’s legal department had to decide whether Leary’s song had artistic or literary merit. He concedes that permitting the title word on the radio is unusual; the station’s morning duo, Mark and Brian, are generally not allowed to say it, nor is Howard Stern on KLSX-FM (97.1). But Curelop said that the song is fun and silly, and he doesn’t see radio stations that play it as getting away with anything shocking.

“With the advent of cable TV and with general loosening up in society with that kind of language, it doesn’t surprise me that this song is on the radio,” he said.

A&M; records, which released Leary’s album, expected to have problems getting airplay on mainstream radio, according to J. B. Brenner, vice president of album promotion. But Brenner added that asshole is not one of George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” that the Supreme Court specifically declared to be indecent in 1978. A couple of those words are included in the lyrics of the song, but A&M; has bleeped them for radio stations. Other radio stations, such as KQLZ, have edited out the sections containing those words entirely.

“Some programmers are afraid to play it,” Brenner said. “But it seems that those stations that are trying to project a renegade attitude are having a lot of fun with this track.”

Eric Weiss, senior vice president of legal affairs for Westwood One, the parent company of KQLZ, said he reviewed the song and determined that it “clearly falls outside the FCC’s definition of indecency,” which, he said, focuses on sexual or excretory activities or organs.

Brenner said that at some stations, complaints and requests have been running about even, but at many, including the three in Los Angeles, objections have been minimal.