Explicit Content!

[ihatespinach]

Some of the DJs/ shows/ music on my station may feature explicit content not suitable for minors. (Love how I just phrased that...:rofl

- Are there any rules I should be aware of regarding swearing, adult humour, political incorrectness, etc?

- Could I be shut down or approached by Ofcom or some other broadcasting standards agency if they receive complaints about my station?

- Do I need to respect a watershed and only broadcast adult material after 9pm for example?

- Do I need to ensure my station is (only) listed in the Adult categories within station directories or can it be listed in any category?

- Does broadcasting adult material affect my PRS and PPL licensing and/or the music I'm allowed to play?

For once, I'm hoping the answer to all my questions is NO

Thanks.

 

[Support]

To be honest, this is not something that has really been asked before, so we are not 100% sure what to suggest to you? We can only really recommend that you contact Ofcom or similar broadcasting standards agency's for advice on this. We are not sure however that broadcasting adult material would affect your PRS and PPL licensing, but again we can only suggest contacting them for advice on this really.

If you are using such adult content then we recommend either having some kind of disclaimer or marking the stream under the "Adult Humour" or "Political" categories. Also, if possible you could just try and keep this type of content post-watershed to be sure.

 

[ihatespinach]

Makes sense to contact Ofcom so will try that. I'm thinking of things like non-radio friendly versions of rap/ hip hop tracks for example. I'm sure there must be specialist stations out there playing that sort of music, and maybe comedy stations broadcasting material deemed offensive by some people. Will investigate further...

 

[Support]

I'm thinking of things like non-radio friendly versions of rap/ hip hop tracks for example. I'm sure there must be specialist stations out there playing that sort of music, and maybe comedy stations broadcasting material deemed offensive by some people. Will investigate further...

Yes there are many of these type of stations already broadcasting this type of stuff. Just take a look through our stations directory's.

And yes, its probably worth you just doing a little research into it.

 

[BigBoxRadio.net]

Some of the DJs/ shows/ music on my station may feature explicit content not suitable for minors. (Love how I just phrased that...:rofl

- Are there any rules I should be aware of regarding swearing, adult humour, political incorrectness, etc?

- Could I be shut down or approached by Ofcom or some other broadcasting standards agency if they receive complaints about my station?

- Do I need to respect a watershed and only broadcast adult material after 9pm for example?

- Do I need to ensure my station is (only) listed in the Adult categories within station directories or can it be listed in any category?

- Does broadcasting adult material affect my PRS and PPL licensing and/or the music I'm allowed to play?

For once, I'm hoping the answer to all my questions is NO

Thanks.

This is a good question & even one I considered before I started actively streaming. I feel it comes down to a personal choice on your part to do it or not. We don't fall under FCC regulations being internet broadcasters, so of course explicit songs can be played w/o any fear of being fined or anything like that. I choose not to for a few reasons: Firstly I don't like all the profanity in many of the songs & don't feel it's necessary to have a "nice" song or a hit, so we play all edited versions & keep it "clean". Secondly if you're considering having advertisers/sponsors on your station, it may be a turn off to many of them just because of the profanity & keep them away & you don't want that. I figured why risk it if I could/would lose potential customers. Lastly (for me) it came back to the image I wanted to portray & have for my station. I personally just didn't want a daily profanity filled song rotation for the station... It just really depends on you & your goals for your station... Take care

http://bigboxradio.net

 

[General Lighting]

In all democratic nations where internet broadcasting is permitted, provided you do not break your countrys laws on boundaries of free speech (all nations have these, especially with regard to race, faith, or inciting people to commit illegal acts) you are not going to get trouble from the national Communications Ministry or any other authorities.

if you are not in such a country then you probably won't be able to stream online anyway due and it would be more risky to you and your listeners than even setting up an analogue pirate station. Copyright licensing is a separate issue which usually comes under civil rather than criminal law (where such a distinction is made in a national legal code).

BigboxRadio makes a good point about not putting off potential sponsors - also if your station proves popular enough you might even want to get a community radio license in your local area in which case the national regulations for broadcasters would apply.

In any case you can't declare a "watershed" any further than your country or adjacent timezones as what is evening in the UK is early morning in Malaysia and vice versa.

Some streams on PartyVibe do contain tracks with swearing but we never get bother for them nor being linked to a forum where there is all manner of swearing and open discussion of drug use. There is an informal agreement amongst the mods (many of whom are now parents) that our youngest of the community should at least have reached their mid teens, and we comply with applicable rules regarding safe environments for these younger people (which is something even the BBC have struggled with).

We don't even get the forum or the streams blocked in the "stricter" countries of the world and folk regularly tune in from there without any problems.