The last time listeners will have always heard Dire Straits' Money for Zero in its original form on EZ Rock was two weeks ago; the next time, it will have the word "faggot" muted.
A ruling last week by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council bans the country's 700-plus radio stations from playing the 25-year-old song because of repeated use of the word, including the Sault Ste.
Marie, Ont. station. They will abide by the ruling and air an edited version, because "it's too broad of a song not to play," said general manager Scott Sexsmith. "If it means playing an edited version, so be it. I'd rather do that than not take it at all."
While the station's official position is that it's "here to prevent the CBSC," Sexsmith said at least one listener expressed his unhappiness about the ruling.
"I had one call today, from someone asking why the ruling went the way it did. But it's not our place to judge," he said Monday.
The CBSC has faced a chorus of critics, including the set itself. Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher joined on his website Friday, calling the ruling "outrageous" and the council's decision "hilarious" for having missed the point of the band's song about homophobia.
"WHAT a blast of paper," he wrote of the decision. "Canada will now be forced to ban all Rap music since the 'N' word is uttered in most recordings."
The decision was prompted by a commission from a single listener, identified as a member of the gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgendered community.
While Canadian stations may no longer be the song uncut, those based in the United States and extend into Canada such as Rock 101 in the Michigan Sault face no such restrictions. Operations manager Mark SanAngelo expressed surprise a generally benign British band has been singled out amid all the potentially offensive music produced in the last 40 years.
"There are a lot of songs out there that are much more intense than a 30-year-old Dire Straits song," said SanAngelo. " 'Faggot' is certainly an objectionable word, and certainly not one I'd use in my own language, but I'm not in the job of censoring artists. "
At the same time, the station plays "clean" versions of many popular current songs, with swear words replaced, including by Canada's Nickelback. "We do attempt to play edited versions of songs, because there's a lot of curse words in a lot of songs that weren't there when I started 25 years ago," he said.
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