Band Management: Blog 35: Profanity and the FCC…

This stuff only happens when you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m managing “Band A” for one year, as an exploration of the music industry – and I don’t know what I’m doing. 
I’ve had success sending out music by “Band A” to college and independent radio stations. I won’t say overwhelming success, but if I send out a “Band A” release to 25 radio stations then a radio station will play “Band A.” 
Back in May I sent out a bunch of emails. One radio station (a pretty influential station) sent a great email back, that one of the DJs liked a song, was sharing with a couple other people at the station, and could we send a physical copy? So I printed 50 CDs of the release – and I sent them out to a bunch of radio stations. I didn’t hear anything. Crickets. I sent a couple of follow up emails to stations that had expressed interest. Crickets.
So “Band A” is not a profane band. It’s not about profanity. Maybe in the total catalogue of 10 songs there is profanity in one song. They’re garage, new wave, pop.
On Tuesday morning I received an email from the radio station: “Hi John, did you warn us that the title track has a FCC violation? I played it tonight and the F bomb was rather clear over the airwaves.”
I broke out into cold sweat – because I truly love this radio station. They chose a song that has a lot of shouting in it – like it’s purposely recorded to sound as if the band is playing at a late night dive bar. Me, the band, our engineer/producer Edward Madill all shout-along the chorus. And there are some random shouts and claps during the song. And, yeah, sure enough, in the middle of the song, in the middle of a guitar solo, I am shouting the f-bomb. Me shouting the f-bomb like an idiot.
Do you want to read my cringey/total wanker apology response:
“I am so sorry. “Band A” are not a band that uses profanity – except that word in the title track. I know I need to be more clear with an “explicit” on that track. When KPSU put us into rotation they reached out to confirm the lyrical content of “Cloak & Dagger” – but I understand I need to be more pro-active and clear with profanity. You are one of the greatest radio stations in the country – and we are so lucky to have you. I am so sorry. I will be adding “explicit” to the track listing and “Band A” will be back in the studio on Monday and I’ll get the band to create a clean version of for the radio.”
Cringey…