I am a 29-year-old male who works part time at the Boys and Girls Club. I am writing to draw attention to a certain public hypocrisy that is happening regularly in the city of Penticton, which has to do with our major radio station, Sun FM.
The language and subject matter of a number of songs are most likely unknown to many parents, especially parents that are concerned about the sort of language that their children are speaking. I listen to the radio as I drive children to and from school in the morning and afternoon respectively, (which shows that these songs are on when kids are driving to school listening to the radio) and often change the station because of the language. Here are a few samples, if they are even able to be printed:
Rihanna — S&M: “Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it. Sticks and stones may break my bones But chains and whips excite me.”
Pink — Raise Your Glass: “Party crasher, panty snatcher, call me up if you a gangsta.”
Lady Gaga — Judas: “Fame hooker, prostitute wench vomits her mind; But in the cultural sense I just speak in future tense; Judas kiss me if offensed, Or wear ear condom next time.”
Ke$ha — Take it off: “There’s a place downtown where the freaks all come around. It’s a hole in the wall, it’s a dirty free for all. And they turn me on, when they take it off. When they take it off, everybody take it off.”
I would like to add that there are a number of songs with decent enough lyrics that are played, perhaps not often enough. Can we really tell our kids not to talk like this and then let them listen to a radio station that is dubbed by Randy Farmer during the water cooler quiz (which is part of the morning program) as “a family show”?
My opinion here is obvious, yet restrained, and not the point. The point is to let parents know what is on the radio, and to question the act of deeming certain language unacceptable from the child’s mouth, and acceptable going into the child’s ear. And just in case you’re wondering, kids figure out what this stuff means a lot faster than you think.
Thomas Pujol
Penticton