Wednesday, August 17, 2005

WUKY's Tom Godell and "The Writer's Almanac"

A few days ago I posted WUKY (Lexington, KY) Cancels Radio Program Over Offensive Content about the local Lexington public radio general manager's cowardly decision to pull the national literary radio show, The Writer's Almanac, because of its previous usage of the word "breast" (twice) and "get high" in poetry segments. The GM's excuse was that it "might" offend some listeners and lead to FCC fines?

Good news, this was in the latest issue of Charlie Hughes' Kentucky literary newsletter (Charlie is also the publisher of Wind publications):

WUKY-FM aka SNAFU-FM -- After ceasing the broadcasting of Garrison Keillor's Writers Almanac, allegedly for fear of FCC sanctions due to "raw" language, the University of Kentucky radio station reinstated the program following a storm of protest from listeners. And what were the offending words--- "breast" on two occasions, and "get high." After the fallout, Tom Godell, WUKY General Manager, offered reassurance that the station will no longer censor the word "breast," and that there are no plans to discontinue the broadcasting of Prairie Home Companion. The whole episode was an insult to the station's listeners and an embarrassment to the University perpetrated by a radio staff that failed to think before acting. It's %*@#*! stupid---a story I'd expect to find in The Onion.
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I noticed that WUKY's Tom Godell in his wisdom has moved the show from 11am to 7pm to protect young innocents from the usage of the word "breast"...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I work for WUKY. What do you want to know?