CHUM denies banning war songs

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This article was published 29/03/2003 (8454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — CHUM-AM, Toronto’s famous oldies music radio station, has not pulled any songs from its playlist due to sensitivity over the war in Iraq, despite reports to the contrary, station manager Brad Jones insisted yesterday.

“Why would 1050 CHUM ban songs we’ve been playing for 40 years?” Jones said. “There are no songs banned on the radio at this point in time… for CHUM-AM or CHUM-FM.”

Published reports had said CHUM yanked such classic titles as John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance, War by Edwin Starr and even Soldier Boy, a Vietnam-era anthem by the Shirelles. The reports said the banned titles had been posted Thursday on the Web site for CP24, CHUM’s Toronto-based all-news TV channel.

“I just can’t believe how fast this spread and how misinterpreted that it got,” Jones told CP24.

In fact, he said, one of the allegedly banned tunes, The Night Chicago Died by Paper Lace, was played yesterday morning and Give Peace a Chance was scheduled for later in the day.

Reports of bans

Jones believes the misunderstanding originated with a conversation between someone at CHUM and at CP24 where the term “pulled” was used. He says in radio station lingo, pulled means a record has been grabbed or pulled off the library shelf for use, not scrubbed from airplay.

Meanwhile, there have been several reports of bans elsewhere. MTV Europe apparently dropped several music videos that contained images and war themes, in addition to any titles by the B52s. BBC’s Radio 1 also confirmed it has banned titles considered unpalatable due to references to war and gore.

MTV Canada says, however, there has been no altering of its playlist.

Also Clear Channel, a huge network of 1,200 radio stations in the U.S., has compiled a list of more than 150 songs considered questionable in taste given the Iraq situation. They include AC/DC’s Shot Down in Flames and the Gap Band’s You Dropped a Bomb on Me.

But a spokesman was quoted as saying the list was a recommendation and not a corporate mandate.

Many American country music stations have dropped the Dixie Chicks since lead singer Natalie Maines’ infamous negative remarks about President George W. Bush.

In the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers, a list of titles emerged that radio stations were advised to avoid, including the disco favourite It’s Raining Men.

— Canadian Press