Nip Here, Tuck There: Preparing Eminem for Radio

By both critical and popular standards, Eminem’s “Stan” is a remarkable song.

Delivered in the form of a story about a deranged fan’s obsession with the rapper, the track is intelligent, moving, witty. And it conveys a positive message: Don’t take Eminem’s hard-core persona too seriously, because it’s mainly just shtick.

At the same time, “Stan,” like the rest of Eminem’s blockbuster album “The Marshall Mathers LP,” is laced with profanities and violent images that broadcast standards deem unfit for the public airwaves. So, Los Angeles radio stations that played the song before its official label release had to figure out how to do so without offending their audiences or running afoul of the Federal Communications Commission.

While the majority of popular music is still relatively benign, there are more high-profile artists nowadays who are pushing the envelope, said Jeff Pollack, chairman of the Los Angeles-based Pollack Group, a radio consulting company. “It’s still a limited number of titles, but it’s more than it used to be.”

Often, that means stations rushing to get songs like “Stan” on the air must make their own edits, each following a sort of individualized censorship plan. As a result, currently listeners in L.A. can tune into at least three versions of “Stan,” including the recently released 5 1/2-minute official radio edit, on stations ranging from alternative-rock trendsetter KROQ-FM (106.7) to hip-hop mainstay KPWR-FM (105.9) to pop-focused KIIS-FM (102.7).

Which station has the real “Stan?”

None, actually. For that, fans have to go to the original, unexpurgated album.

But the programmers at KROQ, which has been spinning the tune for about three months, applied the lightest touch. They took the 6 1/2-minute cut from the album, and superimposed sounds and scratches over most of the swear words. Left intact: the word “ass,” used in the colloquial sense, and references to drunk driving, murder, suicide and other acts of violence, such as Stan’s admission that he likes to cut himself “to see how much it bleeds.”

“We edit what the FCC requires us to edit,” said music director Lisa Worden. “Music is art, and it’s not KROQ’s job to censor art.”

Producers of movies, video games and music have been under governmental scrutiny since the Federal Trade Commission released a study last month concluding that entertainment marketers routinely target young children with works intended for mature audiences.

But radio stations are accustomed to such scrutiny, and to self-restraint. FCC guidelines prohibit them from broadcasting obscene or indecent programming, and require them to abide by community standards--at the risk of losing their broadcast license.

Since community standards vary by region and area, the boundaries of what radio stations can get away with are fuzzy. Usually, say observers, stations settle for not insulting their listeners.

“A lot of what drives radio programming isn’t what people like, but rather avoiding what they don’t like,” said Titus Levi, an assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication who studies radio. “Tune-outs are the bane of radio programming.”

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For nearly two months, KPWR played a version of “Stan” that filtered out violent lyrics in addition to objectionable language, muting the words “kill himself,” “slit her throat” and “tied her up,” among others. For example, the line “If she suffocates she’ll suffer more, and then she’ll die too,” was reduced to “If she [blank] she’ll suffer more, and then she’ll [blank] too.”

KPWR’s version was taken from the edited album that Eminem’s label, Interscope Records, issued for discount retailers like Wal-Mart and Target.

“That was the only version that was clean. We automatically use the clean versions,” said E-Man, the station’s music director. The song’s violence wasn’t really an issue, he said. Proving the point, last Friday KPWR put a new 6 1/2-minute version of “Stan” into rotation that is essentially the same as the old one, but with several of the violent references restored.

“We like to play the records as they are, because it’s entertainment,” E-Man said. “But if there’s something that sounds really too crazy, where it’s obvious or too direct, we will either edit it or not play it at all.”

KROQ and KPWR were among a few dozen alternative and rap stations across the country that played “Stan” before the single’s official launch.

Last week, Interscope shipped stations a radio-friendly version that eliminated more than a minute from the song. Among the cuts: one of the haunting choruses by British chanteuse Dido, and mentions of wife beating, Phil Collins and popping “1,000 downers.” Label executives would not comment on the edits that affected the song’s violent content.

“Radio edits are made for time and for profanity, end of story,” said Dennis Dennehy, Eminem’s publicist at Interscope.

KROQ doesn’t expect to replace its current version with the radio cut, Worden said. But for more mainstream stations, such as KIIS-FM (102.7), the condensed track is a perfect opportunity to jump on the “Stan” bandwagon.

“I think this song’s kind of interesting,” said Michael Steele, music director at KIIS, which will be airing the radio edit. “You’re always concerned about violence, but I think in this case the message of the song ends up being pretty good. It actually shows that maybe Eminem has a soft side, that maybe he isn’t all just sex and violence.”