FCC Reverses Decision to Fine Radio Station Over Rap Song

Federal regulators on Tuesday reversed themselves and said they would not impose a $7,000 indecency fine on a Colorado Springs radio station for airing a version of rap singer Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady.”

The surprise about-face clears KKMG-FM, a top-40 radio station, of charges that the station violated Federal Communications Commission rules barring stations from airing “obscene, indecent or profane language.”

Broadcasters and free speech advocates had decried the FCC fine when it was issued in June. They said the agency had singled out KKMG for playing an “edited” version of Eminem’s hit rap single that hundreds of other top-40 stations also had aired for weeks without incident.

After consulting with executives from KKMG’s owner, Citadel Broadcasting, and reviewing Eminem’s song again, the FCC’s enforcement bureau said they agreed with that view.

“The sexual references contained in the song’s ‘radio edit’ version are not expressed in terms sufficiently explicit or graphic enough to be found patently offensive,” the FCC said.

Brenda Goodrich, general manager of KKMG-FM, could not be reached for comment.

But FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, a Democrat, said the indecency issue should have been decided by the agency’s top command--its five presidentially appointed commissioners--rather than career agency staffers.