As many of you know, I was a radio show host of Plattsburgh Progressive Radio on WQKE 93.9 FM last semester. It was great fun, although one compliant was the limitation on so-called obscene language on the radio.

You probably know by now about George Carltin's seven dirty words, he used in his famous skit. They all involved human acts of sexuality or things you do in the bathroom. They include words like fuck, piss, shit, cunt, asshole, and so forth. Not exactly polite words, but they describe things that we all do.

At the same time, it's fine with the FCC if we refer to black people as niggers on the radio or women as bitches. At least so the media have come to understand the obscenity rule on the radio and television. It's another example of our double standard between sexuality and other abusive or destructive acts.

To be sure, none of us really want to turn on the radio and hear about somebody taking a poop while we are eating our fries in our truck. At same time, we don't really want to see such horrible violence on our television. But the utter taboo on some words and concepts seems insane when equally offensive things are permissible.

The FCC or the station didn't come after me for the accidental remark I made about the "shit you find at the bottom of your burn barrel" when talking about solid waste on one of my shows. Nor would they under their official standards. That kind of crude language is just a natural part of our language, but one can go too far.

Nobody ever tried to censor the content of my shows. The first amendment and the liberal policies of the college radio station basically permitted me to say what I believed. Still, I didn't like the FCC hanging over my head with the threat of being fined major dollars for language that we use every day.

There needs to be a balance. Purely obscene shows need to be only on pay radio, like Howard Stern on XM Radio. Public radio waves should be protected, but the FCC should stay completely neutral in content. They should only regulate in cases where the content of the show is so abusive that it's essentially intolerable.