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Is the Corner kid-friendly?

by Hawes Spencer

I remember growing up in Richmond in the 1970s that our local album station, XL 102, played the “who the f*** are you” version of the Who’s “Who Are You?” You can barely hear it, and nobody complained. A few years earlier, a lot of stations took heat for playing Donna Summer’s moaning and nothing-to-the-imagination “Love to Love You Baby.” So, now I’m wondering if I should have any concerns about Charlottesville’s new “it” station, 106.1 The Corner for my own kids. On the one hand, they play the Cure’s “Let’s Go to Bed” pretty heavily, and last summer I seem to recall Fiction Plane’s story of dueling beds in “Two Sisters.” But neither of these present graphic sexuality, and it took me about 20 listenings of each to even figure out the words. And I’ve never heard any paens to violence or to drug use (save Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab“) on the Corner. So what do you think. Is the Corner family-friendly?

  • Brad Savage June 1st, 2008 | 2:17pm

    Thanks for the question, Hawes. I can tell you that The Corner is “family friendly” by nature in our music. We present our music in a smart, no-nonsense style geared towards intelligent adult listeners. The majority of the songs we play are from music genres which are “family safe” (most of the time) by virtue of the artists and the music itself. Most of the music we play can definitely be considered “family friendly” but there isn’t that much of a conscious effort to achieve this result. We don’t exclude songs based on opposition to the lyrics very often. So please be aware that you may happen to catch “Smoke Two Joints” by The Toyes on a Friday afternoon sometime, or a song like “Whip It” by Devo (although kids tend to like that song despite its mature subject matter). Actually, a frequent comment we hear is that teens and parents can usually “agree” on the music played on 106-1 The Corner, and we cover a wide age range listenership in that regard. Finally, we are very careful to adhere to FCC rules and regulations and we do play “radio clean versions” of all songs that swear in lyrics. We even play clean versions during the so called late-night “safe harbor” hours because you can never be too careful when fines for swearing can range $500,000+ after Janet Jackson’s Superbowl Half-Time fiasco! Thanks for listening… BRAD SAVAGE Program Director, WCNR/106-1 The Corner

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