By John Eckberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A one-strike-and-you're-out memo this week from Clear Channel Communications brass, forcing its on-air personalities to clean up the airwaves, has already changed programming at WLW-AM (700).

Darryl Parks, director of AM operations for Clear Channel Cincinnati, killed a topic planned for Thursday night on WLW that would have directed listeners to a Web site dedicated to nude still photos of Hollywood stars. The topic was to have been aired on the Scott Sloan show, which is broadcast from 9 p.m. to midnight.

"I think there is a sensitivity at this time for this type of programming, and we decided it was not the right thing to do," Parks said. "I have talked to everybody explaining the politics of this and what's coming down."

A crackdown on indecent content by the Federal Communications Commission led Clear Channel this week to dump shock jock Howard Stern in six markets where stations owned by Clear Channel carried programming from the New York City-based personality.

The policy came a day after the San Antonio company announced the firing of Florida DJ "Bubba the Love Sponge," whose sexually explicit morning-show antics prompted a proposed $755,000 fine from the FCC last month.

The FCC fined WEBN $4,000 for "obscene, indecent and profane language" heard on a nightly re-broadcast of the Bubba the Love Sponge show in 1997. In December 1998, WEBN dropped the Tampa-based syndicated program.

Clear Channel's latest actions came three weeks after the uproar created by the Super Bowl halftime show on CBS, which ended with singer Justin Timberlake tearing off part of Janet Jackson's top. The incident touched off calls for stricter regulation by the FCC and larger fines.

In Cincinnati, Clear Channel owns WCKY-AM (1360), WEBN-FM (102.7), WKFS-FM (107.1), WKRC-AM (550), WLW-AM (700), WOFX-FM (92.5), WSAI-AM (1530) and WVMX-FM (94.1).

Clear Channel is the largest radio-station company in the nation with 1,200 stations that reach 110 million listeners each week, including 54 percent of all people aged 18- to 49-years-old.

John Hogan, president and chief executive of Clear Channel Radio, called the Stern show "vulgar, offensive and insulting."

Stern still on the air

Infinity has no plans to suspend Howard Stern in Cincinnati at its Cincinnati station WAQZ-FM (97.3), said Karen Mateo, director of communications for Infinity Broadcasting.

The FCC does not actively pursue potential violators, but enforces obscenity and indecency laws following complaints from the public.

Mark Mays, president and chief operating officer of San Antonio, Texas-based Clear Channel, warned in a memo earlier this week that Clear Channel personalities who aired material that the FCC deemed worthy of investigation would be suspended immediately.

And, if the FCC finds that the material was indecent, the on-air personality would be fired. New contracts between the company and personalities will include a clause that the personality would have to share the cost of any fine.

After receiving that memo, Parks told his staff he wanted to know in advance about any questionable planned programming.

"Media companies in general are now targets because of their large nature and revenues," Parks said. "Have we done provocative programming on WLW? Yes. But the majority of the programming we do is not sexual.

"People are coming to us for a number of reasons, not because we have a stripper on the air once every four months."

Phil Burress, president of Sharonville-based Citizens for Community Values, said he sees the actions as a sign of the cultural pendulum swinging back towards decency. As a result of Clear Channel's decision, his group and a similar one in Michigan will start taping Stern's show with the intention of filing complaints with the FCC.

"Howard Stern is not off the hook in Cincinnati," he said.

The group also has been taping WEBN for the past six months, believing it attracts a younger audience than Stern. It plans to file 30 complaints about the station with the FCC, he said.

But will it last?

Bill Reinberger, director of AM sales for Clear Channel Cincinnati, believes advertisers will welcome his company's new direction.

"There have been times in the past when certain advertisers would not want to be associated with certain shows," he said. "Now that won't be an issue."

It is no secret that some advertisers are wary of provocative programming, said Robert K. Riggsbee, president of Inside Media, a Newtown-based media planning, buying and management firm.

"For instance, a conservative company like the Remke Market grocery chain stays as far away from controversy as possible."

But others think the push for broadcasters to clean up their programming will be short-lived. Marjorie Fox, associate professor of electronic media at the University of Cincinnati, said she believes Clear Channel pulled Stern in an attempt to get positive publicity in the wake of the public outcry over the Super Bowl halftime show.

"I'm glad if indeed they will be cleaning up their act, but I doubt it will last very long when the media spotlight goes away," she said.

Enquirer reporter Lauren Bishop and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

E-mail jeckberg@enquirer.com