Music Blog

Nearly a year later, and we're still talking about the impact of Janet Jackson's breast on national TV.

In a way, the FCC won the war. Their recent laws that will allow individual broadcasters to be fined $500,000 for "obscene material" they air on TV or radio was the driving force behind Howard's move from free, advertiser-driven radio to the paid-subscriber driven Sirius. Just think: all this came about because Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's floppy, pierced breast in the Super Bowl halftime show. How could this be? Well, it spawned congressional hearings for months afterward; these hearings and the threats of major fines caused two major media groups (Clear Channel, then Citadel) to "fire" Howard from their stations around the country. One includes where I live as Citadel took Howard off Providence's HOT 106.3 FM. Thank God I can get WBCN out of Boston, which has been a loyal affiliate of the Stern syndicate. I never had to miss a laugh.