Lancashire radio station rapped for playing ‘F-word' song on a Saturday morning
A Central Lancashire radio station breached broadcasting rules when it inadvertently played a song containing the F-word.
Community outlet Radio Leyland aired a track on a Saturday morning earlier this year which included the phrase “f****d” on three occasions.
The station - which has an FM licence to broadcast to the town and surrounding areas in South Ribble - apologised to the regulator Ofcom for the slip-up and blamed “human error”. It also said it had taken a series of “preventative measures” to guard against a similar incident occurring in future.
The song “Let’s Go Fishing”, by American musician Aaron Lewis, was played during the ‘Clark’s Country’ show at just after 10.30am on 6th April.
The error generated a complaint, prompting an investigation by Ofcom which concluded that the station was in breach of that element of the broadcasting code which prohibits use on the radio of “the most offensive language…when children are particularly likely to be listening”.
In its response to the regulator, Radio Leyland said that it had spoken to the presenter of the programme in question to determine how the mistake happened. It had also reviewed all of its systems and procedures and required all volunteers at the station to attend “a compliance top-up course, focusing…especially [on] the matter of offensive language”.
The station - which can also be heard online - said that it “maintains a vetted database of music that is suitable to play at any time” and which is made available to presenters for use during its weekday daytime output.
However, it added that a different process is in place for “specialist music show[s]” - like Clark’s Country - which are broadcast of an evening and weekend. It said that it is “in the nature of such shows that presenters will also play music they have obtained themselves”.
Radio Leyland told Ofcom that the host of Clark’s Country usually listens to all the songs for their next show, but - on this occasion - had instead taken a “risk-based approach, based on his knowledge of the artists’ "track record" and listened to some songs in full and only to the beginning and end of others”. He was said to have given his “abject apologies” for the mistake.
Meanwhile, the station said all presenters had been reminded that they are “ultimately responsible…for ensuring that the music they play is suitable for their timeslot”.