When the FCC slapped Portland, Oregon’s KBOO with a $7,000 fine for indecency two years ago for playing the Sarah Jones song “Your Revolution,” Program Director Chris Merrick and John Crigler, KBOO’s legal council, decided to take a stand for free speech. They have now finally emerged triumphant, as the FCC overturned its decision and rescinded the fine — but the ensuing two-year court battle accrued legal expenses of almost $26,000. The FCC first got involved when a listener called in to complain on Oct. 29, 1999, after hearing the lyric, “six-foot blow-job machine.” “We knew all along that it was not indecent,” said Station Manager Dennise Kowalczyk. “[The song] was in regard to [Jones’s] feelings and concerns about misogynistic lyrics in a lot of Hip-Hop songs and it was a political commentary about that. We knew that from the get-go, and we’re happy that the FCC realized it made a mistake.” There is no plan as-of-yet as to how the station will cover the legal bill, which Kowalczyk described as “money well spent to defend freedom of expression,” but there is a pledge drive planned for March that will most likely address the issue.
