Page 509 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Shock Jocks: Mak ng Mayhem over the A rwaves

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Margot Hardenbergh

shoCk JoCks: Making MayheM oVer the airwaVes
The emotional persuasiveness of person-to-person communication over the
radio has been evident since the birth of the medium. Something about a voice
emanating out of the very air commands an audience’s attention. Many radio
personalities have employed that power without any thought to pushing the en-
velope of acceptable speech, while others have engaged in questioning their
limits almost without license. When does public speech possibly pollute the air-
waves and has the very medium itself been shocking audiences, in one way or
another, throughout its history?
The term “shock jock” has come into vogue as a shorthand designation for
a radio personality who uses the power of his or her microphone in order to
either rile up or titillate the audience. One can distinguish between two types of
shock jocks. First are those with an ideological axe to grind who ridicule if not
ravage the views of their opponents. The currently most popular of those figures
(Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage) tend to be conservative in their politics, al-
though those in opposition to their positions have established a beachhead, the
Air America network, to counter their preeminence on the dial. The second type
of shock jock appeals to listeners through either disregarding or intentionally
deflating the rules of publicly permissible speech as propounded by the Fed-
eral Communications Commission (FCC). The currently most popular of those
figures (Howard Stern; Opie and Anthony) litter their broadcasts with sexual in-
nuendo if not on occasion outright obscenity. The ultimate aim of both camps,
admittedly, comes down to ratings and the maximization of their share of the
audience, yet in some cases, shock jocks act in a deliberate manner in order to
convince the public to adopt their positions and act upon them in such a way as
to influence public life.