According to the NY Times Sarah Jones, whose song “Your Revolution” garnered an indecency violation from the FCC for community radio station KBOO, has filed suit against the Commission, charging that her song is not indecent and that fining KBOO for playing it is a violation of her first amendment rights. This is quite a bold and unprecedented move, but I think it highlights another way in which independent artists are squeezed out of the mainstream, especially since fighting an FCC violation ruling is an expensive proposition which most small non-commercial stations and independent artists cannot easily afford. If playing a particular song gets one small station fined, then other small nonprofit stations have little choice but to avoid it, not being able to take the financial risk, which means an effective blacklisting of that song, and maybe even that artist. By comparison, when the FCC finds an Eminem or other major label artist’s song indecent, the hefty weight of the music industry and radio conglomerates comes to bear down on the FCC, hence the FCC reversing itself on having found an Eminem song indecent.
Previously:
Community Radio Fined for Indecency 5/17/01
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