I got annoyed on social media recently when I was accused in a comment about one of my posts of not knowing much about radio.
I replied flippantly at the time, noting that I may not know much about radio, but I had been writing about it since the late 1980s.
It turns out I was wrong and, as I always strive to do here, I am happy to correct that error.
The first time I wrote about radio was in March 1980, and the article appeared in the University of Queensland’s student newspaper, Semper.
Here’s what I wrote:
Three out of four Brisbane commercial radio stations have decided that the Life of Brian song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” is too offensive to be played in its original form.
The song, written and sung by Eric Idle, contains the lines “Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it”.
Radio station 4BK censors the word shit by “bleeping” it out. When asked why this was deemed neccessary, a 4BK spokesperson said, “To be totally honest, as far as our licence is concerned, we are not allowed to (play) it”.
Semper pointed out that rival station 4BC played the song uncut. “They can do whatever they want to,” he replied. “They can stand on their heads on Mt. Coot-tha if they like.
“I’m being facetious, of course.”
The 4BK spokesperson said that they had to stick by “the rules”. Both 4BC and 4IP spokespersons said, however, that they had received no broadcasting tribunal directive on the song. One said that the tribunal was behind in their work and that the song would probably be given a “B” classification. If such a classification were applied, it would be up to the station manager whether or not the song was played in its unadulterated form.
4BC is the only station that plays the original version of the song. Semper asked why. One staff member replied “Gee, I don’t know.” A more informed spokesperson said that he did not consider the song to be offensive.
He said that it was a happy song and that not many people he had played it to noticed the four letter word. Those who did, agreed with the statement that life, indeed, is a piece of shit. He said that if he received any complaints, however, that the word would have to be removed.
A spokesperson for 4IP said that the station could not play the song. “We’ve just edited it out because of our ownership — which is the Catholic Church basically”, she said.
4KQ have taken the song off their play list. This follows a recent change in ownership and musical direction. The version played by the station, like that of 4IP had the whole line dubbed over with words from other parts of the song.
I can also tell you that the second time I wrote about radio was in April 1980, in an article about “hyping” the top 40 charts — an issue I’ll revisit in a future post here (when I remember).
Revisiting the Python article reminded me of going to the premiere of Life of Brian in Brisbane and, many years later, interviewing Eric Idle and meeting him backstage at the QPAC Concert Hall after a performance of the oratorio based on that film, Not the Messiah.
More recently, I had a Twitter conversation with Idle when I was working at 4BC, producing Bill McDonald’s Weekend Breakfast show. I was trying to convince Idle to talk on air, but he wouldn’t be in it. We did, however, accede to his request to give a shout-out to his son, who lived on the Sunshine Coast.
Mister Brisbane is free to read but you if you really like it, you
can buy me a coffee or take out a paid subscription.
P.S.
One former media personality is getting an unusual amount of sympathetic mainstream media coverage lately — and it seems that none of the authors has cared to delve too deeply into the reasons why that person is no longer in the limelight.
Perhaps this “censorship” in that era was eclipsed only by the removal of the word “bloody” in the two novelty songs by the Royal Guardsmen released in Australia in 1967 - Snoopy Vs The Red Baron and The Return of the Red Baron. The “bloody” Red Baron was deemed too offensive at the time for sensitive Australian ears on radio stations across the nation. Bloody hell - still hard to believe!