While some Top 40 and Hot AC programmers are very concerned about the recent concentration of multi-format pop hits with edgy titles and/or lyrics, an increasing number believe song content has become a non-issue for their audience.

Lyric concerns, of course, have been a recurring issue since the early days of Top 40 radio. They have come to the fore again as lyrics that need to be obscured or replaced increasingly make their way into the hook or title of songs, as evidenced by Cee-Lo’s “F**k You (Forget You),” Pink’s “F**king Perfect,” and the original title of Enrique Iglesias’ “Tonight (I’m Loving You).” Together, those songs prompted a front-page New York Times story. Then there are songs with edgy subject matter, like Rihanna’s No. 1 “S&M” that are playable as written, but could prompt lyrical concerns anyway.

Last week, in response to a reader concern that edgy titles and lyrics could threaten the current strength of CHR’s mother-daughter coalition, Radio-Info’s Ross On Radio column asked whether Top 40 is ever supposed to be family-friendly. “If you play those records, then you are most definitely not family friendly,” responded KMXZ (Mix 94.9) Tucson, Ariz., morning man and veteran programmer Bobby Rich.

“Yes, Top 40 is supposed to be family-friendly,” says WIFC Wausau, Wis., PD Tony Waitekus. “And I hate that some artists and record companies don’t understand that the biggest hits are the ones with the largest appeal.”

KSTP-FM (KS95) Minneapolis PD Leighton Peck says that lyric and title issues “definitely play into the decision making process. I’m not quite sure why artists insist on pushing the edge when they don’t need to. A great song will get played; a great song with questionable lyrics may get played.” Peck also notes that “the dads are the quickest to call and complain. Maybe it’s a Midwest thing?”

“What AC chart? The current crop of the songs on the AC chart are not adult,” says John Libynski, of Country KQSS Globe, Ariz. “My other business is mobile music. I am beginning to get a backlash from my clients not to play the current top 40.”

“Language remains a huge issue here in the city of churches,” says Adult Top 40 WAJI Fort Wayne, Ind., PD Barb Richards. “While we get clean edits from labels, we never think it’s enough for our audience, so we go in there and make it cleaner… I also have a panel of moms who I will often e-mail and ask what their feelings are about a particular song.”

PROGRAMMERS MORE WORRIED THAN LISTENERS?

“Yes, I am concerned. The station was built on the family-friendly concept” says the PD of a major-market AC station, who asked not to be named. Yet, he goes on to say that the station’s initial test-case, "My Life Would Suck Without You" generated not a single complaint. Now, the same goes for Cee-Lo, Pink, and the thinly-disguised “burn the mother fu—— down” line in Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling In Love.” (Despite that, the PD says, he’s also conscious of those listeners who will simply tune out, rather than complain.)

Hot AC KHMX (Mix 96.5) Houston PD Tracy Austin is one of several PDs who note that “TV and movies are pushing it further to get attention,” and may be desensitizing the audience. She cites the increasingly edgy content on the ABC Family Channel.

And as one Hot AC PD who asked not to be named points out, “Today, I get calls and e-mails asking why I’m bleeping out lyrics in songs like Everlast’s ‘What It’s Like’ while letting newer artists like Pink get away with cuss words… Music censorship [concerns] that were driven by politicians in the late twentieth century just aren’t there or nobody cares anymore.”

The PD goes on to recount a story about a band that played a recent in-studio performance for station winners and decided to cover “F—- You” uncensored. Atypically, there were three kids under 10 in the audience. Even after their parents were warned in advance, they chose not to take the kids out of the room.

“I have always been a tough sell on those songs that are blatantly sexual or offensive, but as much as I have fought against them, trying to protect my audience, my audience comes back and says, ‘Chad, you’re over thinking this, we want to hear these songs,” says Chad Rufer, PD of KZZO (Now 100.5) Sacramento, Calif.

At Top 40 WNCI Columbus, Ohio, PD Tony Florentino says his station is “always expected to win 25-54, so we generally seek out the cleanest versions of songs we play.” But WNCI decided to play the “F—- You” version of Cee-Lo “rather than the [tamer] ‘Forget You,’ and we received just one complaint. With a cume of nearly 500,000, that’s remarkable.”

DON'T BE A DROP-OUT

But one major-market CHR PD, who asked for anonymity.says he is worried about Cee-Lo and Pink, particularly since those songs have had dramatically different results in his callout, where they are top five, and in the PPM-based MScore, where they were the bottom two songs. Other programmers he networked with were less concerned—saying they considered MScore to be less demo-specific than callout. The PD who spoke thinks the problem may have stemmed from running dropout edits, rather than replacement lyrics, at the outset.

With replacement lyrics, of course, “It’s likely that most of the audience is not aware what the titles of ‘Forget You,’ ‘Perfect,’ and ‘Tonight (I’m Loving You)’ actually are,” says Millennium Radio Group Monmouth/Ocean, N.J., PD/Assistant OM Steve Ardolina. “All three of them have been recorded with clean lyrics, rather than poorly edited. I hope the labels will continue this trend because what’s good for radio has to be good for sales. ‘S&M’ might be the exception because even on the new ‘clean’ version, the intent of the song is still obvious. We haven’t added it to [Adult Top 40] WJLK-FM because of this.”

“The only song we get complaints about is ‘S&M,’” says WIFC’s Waitekus. “Interestingly enough, the complaint isn’t about the word ‘sex,’ although I’m sure that doesn’t help, but about ‘chains and whips.’”

KHMX’s Austin says she has actually gotten more complaints about the repetition of Cee-Lo on her station than about the lyrics. “I think ‘Forget You’ as a lyric stands on its own, like with the Pink when they turned it into its own song. If you got the original lyrics off of iTunes, then we get credit for playing a safe version, so maybe it scores us points with parents.”

But WIFC’s Waitekus asks, “What was the point of [even releasing] the original version” of songs like Pink, Cee-Lo and Enrique Iglesias, when it’s “the mainstream version that gets those songs to No. 1”? All that happens is that parents, and non-parents, are shocked when they [buy the song] and hear something they never heard on the radio.”

A MARKET-BY-MARKET ISSUE

And as several programmers pointed out, what’s workable varies from market to market. “I get very little, if any, negative feedback regarding edgy lyrics in some of our music. I don’t believe that it’s much of an issue in this market,” says WRMF West Palm Beach, Fla., PD Bob Neumann. “I can’t remember the last time I got a call or e-mail complaint about having to tune out with kids in the car.”

“In Sacramento, I can be a lot more hip with my Hot AC station than I could be in Fort Myers,” says KZZO’s Rufer.

Frank Mueller, PD of Jazz KUNV Las Vegas and its Alternative HD-2 sister station adds, “About five years ago, I worked for a combo in Salt Lake City that had to pull Madonna’s ‘Santa Baby’ from our Christmas mix after listener complaints. Now, we’re about to air an interview with a porn star talking about her latest film and I doubt I’ll hear a peep.”