February 26 2007
Sport, Broadcasting and Bestiality
posted by Ana Samways at 8:49 pmRadio Sport has had a right telling off from the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) for trying to rark up Waikato NPC supporters by using a soundtrack which simulated a woman having sex with a bull.
The show’s presenter followed up the track by saying, “My god is there nothing those people won’t get up to up there. I guess if you spend most of your life looking at the back end of a cow it’s liable to affect you in the long run.”
Owners of the station, The Radio Network (TRN) maintained that the sounds heard by the complainant were intended to reflect “the provincial, country cousin (Waikato), putting it up the city slicker (Wellington) in the NPC rugby final”.
TRN agreed that this wasn’t particularly amusing and defended their broadcast by blaming their target audience — men 18-59. Trying to dog themselves out of a hole, the radio bosses claimed Radio Sport contained “bar-room humour” and while some people could find this puerile and not very humorous, the broadcaster said it catered for the male target audience.
The complainant argued that “if broadcasting sounds replicating the sound of someone having sex with an animal are not considered inappropriate, then what is?” And the BSA agreed.
The BSA considered that the impression of bestiality given by the soundtrack (reinforced by the presenter’s subsequent remarks) and the fact it was broadcast on a Sunday morning when kids could be listening, breached the standards of good taste and decency.