The alternative/modern/college/indie rock radio market has become more competitive now that WLLZ has shifted its programming towards the younger audience, joining CIMX, WDET and WHYT. Even album oriented rock stations like WRIF and heavy metal headbangers WDZR (Z-Rock) have to acknowledge bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden et al. to remain somewhat competitive. With all this competition, how do you offer something different?
Well, if you are Canadian broadcaster CIMX, you begin the "we don't mess with your favorite songs" campaign and play the music totally unedited. The campaign may have started in response to WDZR's blatant tampering with the Filter song, "Hey Man, Nice Shot." Originally intended as a tribute to the died-too-soon rock great Kurt Cobain, the radio station inserted poorly placed excerpts from a Red Wings' game's play-by-play, changing the meaning of the song to a cheap "Go Red Wings" pep rally. This became academic after the Red Wings lost so miserably to the New Jersey Devils and WDZR stopped playing the so-called "Wings mix."
Building on the slogan, CIMX now plays totally uncensored versions of hit songs, just as they appear on the album, just as the artist recorded them. Now you can hear Green Day complain about listening to "the same old shit" or "when masturbation has lost its fun, you're fuckin'..." in the song "Longview"; Alanis Morissette's biting jab at her ex-lover when she cries "do you think of me when you fuck her"; Bush wonder if he should "look for his asshole brother"; Nine Inch Nails' "I want to fuck you like an animal"; White Zombie's sampled "I'll kill the motherfucker" and the appropriate "I'll say whatever the fuck I damn well please."
WHYT tends to be the most tame, scrambling the cuss words in each of these samples. WLLZ will let the Bush "asshole" comment slide and WRIF will play Pink Floyd's "Money" with its "do goodie good bullshit," but all the other songs mentioned have annoying scrambling, bleeps or dead silence. Yet, all the stations have no problem playing the utterly tasteless "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" in its entirety, so puerile sexual innuendo is still preferred over songs with a message that have filthy words.
It's a marketing scheme that not only thumbs its nose at the other radio stations, but gives a great big finger to the FCC. CIMX is not bound by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission and Canadian broadcast standards are much more liberal when it comes to on-air language (it's like the difference between watching "Kids in the Hall" uncensored on CBC Channel 9 or censored versions on Channel 2 or Comedy Central).
Being a border town offers the Detroit audience a unique listening situation. American radio stations might be hard pressed to follow suit, but fear of FCC punishment is cause to hesitate. If Americans truly believed in their First Amendment Right to Free Speech, it wouldn't even be unique. The FCC was set up to divide radio frequencies in a logical order, assuring that radio stations don't accidentally drown each other out by having frequencies that overlap, and to keep emergency channels clear. I'm not sure when the FCC took it upon themselves to be the moral watchdog and protect our meek and sensitive ears from nasty poo-poo language.