Your next job is…. “Content Censor.”

This morning I surfed over to the usual web sites to gander for the latest openings and job postings. About once a week I do check out the Clear Channel and CBS sites, you never know what might be lurking. But I have learned from experience over the years that once jobs turn up on internal company job sites, they’re usually filled anyway. At least in theory. As unfortunate as it may seem, job postings in broadcasting are often just the first and last stop to fulfill EOE requirements. I hope I’m not letting the cat out of the bag here. It’s not any big secret is it?!

So I find this rather interesting job opening on the Clear Channel site:

Morning Show Content Censor
Job Description: Clear Channel in Washington, D.C. has an immediate full-time opening for a Morning Show Content Censor. As the Morning Show Content Censor, you will be responsible for providing content protection for the “Elliot in the Morning” radio show on DC101. Content protection entails carefully listening and archiving the radio broadcast. Should show content violate FCC indecency or obscenity rules, you will be responsible for activating the content delay and/or preempting the broadcast with external content until you deem content is safe for returning to the broadcast….

Holy Cow! A show content censor! I guess in this day and age, whatever day and age this will be remembered as being, it’s not a ‘half-bad’ idea. But what’s this gig gonna pay? I’m betting that it’s not a six-figure income. If I had to take a half-baked guess, I’d venture to guess it pays closer to minimum wage than it does 30 grand a year. But, who knows? Still, I am intrigued with the idea that an employee making let’s say, 10 or 15 bucks an hour is the last gatekeeper for keeping everything legal with the FCC. I mean, let’s face it, the Feds don’t even have any clear guidelines as to what is or isn’t indecent. Even the most seasoned broadcasters know that the FCC’s current versions of ‘indecent’ is a shell game, an endlessly shifting and moving target. Hell, a law professor at an Ivy League college that specializes in media law would have a hard time trying to figure out when to or not to hit the dump button. Sheit. And smart money would say that the hire they have in mind is undoubtedly a few letters short of a PHD.

And so it goes….