My Reply

The slightly light-hearted reply I've sent to this email:

My re-collection of Monday's show is that we certainly did not swear - I think the harshest thing I said was "bugger". I appreciate that if I lived in the US and had the FCC to contend with, I'd be screwed, but "bugger" is hardly a post-watershed word.

As for sex, yes it was discussed on the show, as were a number of other things: the US Presidential race, Big Brother, immigration officers and avian 'flu to name but a few. We are all adults and talking about sex is a perfectly healthy thing to do. Should somebody have a personal problem with this, I would be happy to discuss it with them and possibly set a practical exam*.

Criticism is another healthy part of Junction11 - it highlights those parts of the programming which are not too strong and let's the listener know that they're not the only one. It also avoids the "fakeness" sometimes associated with radio DJs (and Currys shop assistants, who always seem to have whatever it is they want you to purchase**). In an open society, suppressing criticism can, regrettably, lead to just one thing - a suppressed, unhappy, unproductive society.

I must also stress that Junction11 is a student radio station, run by students (as was Spark, but alas that went the way of the executive during my tenure), who have more constructive things to do with their time then reply to emails about mild swearing and criticisms of a partially dire playlist.

* This is a joke and any resemblance to serious, either living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.
** Copyright Lee Evans, 2002.