Hot 97.7/Jackson To Edit Offensive Content

ROBERTS RADIO Urban WRJH (HOT 97.7)/JACKSON is taking a closer look at what they put out over the airwaves, in the wake of the IMUS incident. Their goal is to eliminate anything that would be offensive to listeners, whether it's violent, sexist, or racist, according to a reportby local TV station WLBT.

Station G.M TERRILL WEISS says, "It's art. I understand it's art, but the message sometimes is so negative that young people listening to that music get the impression that it's acceptable to use that kind of language, and to have those kinds of attributes, and we don't want to perpretrate that."

We want people to be comfortable if they turn on the radio station...

The station's entire playlist will have to be re-vamped, every song's lyrics examined to deterimine if it's acceptable to hit the air. Anything deemed too hard or offensive will be banned. That goes for syndicated programming too.

WEISS says, "We're looking at that right now -- whether or not we can continue with RUSS PARR, because he tends to use some of that shock value on air, and we don't want him to represent us that way."

The changes at the radio station are being handed down from its owners, the ROBERTS brothers, who are African American. They plan to have their playlists edited by next week. Listeners probably won't notice a drastic change in what they hear because the music is censored for offensive words. But now content is an issue.

WEISS says, "We want people to be comfortable if they turn on the radio station and not worry if their children are in the car, mom's in the car, grandma ... it's good music, but some of the lyrics are disturbing."

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