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Media
Ofcom tell off Penk over Jump, let off 5live over RATM
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 13 April 2010
OfCom has published its latest report on recent complaints submitted to the regulator by radio listeners, which always makes for fun reading.
This report deals with Steve Penk’s previously reported decision to play Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ when the main story of the day in the Manchester area where his station Revolution broadcasts was that local roads had come to a standstill because a woman was threatening to jump off a bridge onto a motorway. The report reveals that before playing ‘Jump’ at the suggestion of a listener, Penk joked that they should put a trampoline on the M60 for the suicidal woman to jump on, and then film it for ‘You’ve Been Framed’.
The media regulator received 57 complaints about Penk’s various comments. A spokesman for Revolution, which Penk owns, told OfCom: “Steve’s intent was to ‘subliminally’ demonstrate to [the listeners] and [their] fellow sufferers that he had empathy with their predicament without causing widespread upset amongst the wider audience”.
But the regulator said that while the topic of suicide is not off limits as a “subject for comedy”, it thought Penk’s comments and decision to play ‘Jump’ broke broadcasting rules. It said: “While some listeners may have been frustrated to be caught in traffic (and contacted the station) most would have been aware that, in real time as the programme was being aired, there was a woman considering suicide. Under such circumstances, and given this context, Ofcom does not consider that the broadcaster applied generally accepted standards”.
This OfCom report also deals with the previously reported appearance of Rage Against The Machine on the BBC 5live breakfast show in the days running up to the Christmas number one battle. After a rather civil interview, the band performed their song ‘Killing In The Name’ live, including the fuck-filled bit at the end, despite giving assurances to producers they’d self-edit that bit.
Although people did complain about the four fucks that got through before the band, who were playing down the line from the US, were faded out, OfCom said that while the BBC should have been more careful, they were going to let them off, partly because they had received assurances from the band and their management, partly because they did issue two on air apologies immediately, and partly because the whole scenario led to one of Radio 5’s most classic quotes when co-presenter Shelagh Fogarty said: “Get rid of it! Sorry. We needed to get rid of that because that suddenly turned in to something we were not expecting. Well, we were expecting it and asked them not to do it and they did it anyway – so buy Joe’s record”.
