Radio station stops playing ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ amid Me Too movement

[Gingersnap]

Radio station stops playing ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ amid Me Too movement
POSTED 9:07 AM, NOVEMBER 30, 2018, BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE

CLEVELAND - A Cleveland radio station has stopped playing “Baby It's Cold Outside" this holiday season after it says listeners voiced concern about the song’s predatory undertones amid the “Me Too” movement.

WDOK Christmas 102.1 pulled the song from its around-the-clock rotation of Christmas music this week after receiving a call from a listener who suggested it is inappropriate in 2018.

The call-and-response song written in the 1940s includes a woman singing that she has to leave a man’s house as he tries to lure her to stay.

In the song, the female sings “I really can’t stay,” to which the man responds, “but baby, it’s cold outside.”

Other lyrics include the woman singing “say, what’s in this drink?” and “I simply must go… the answer is no.”

“It wasn't really our decision. It's the decision of our listeners,” WDOK midday host Desiray told WJW, noting that the Christmas lineup is decided by the station’s listeners.

The station said it posted a poll about the song on its website and a clear majority of respondents supported the decision to remove the song from the station’s lineup.

Poll results were not visible on the station's website. However, a poll on the station's Facebook page showed that among more than 600 votes by Thursday night, 92% of respondents favored playing the song while just 8% felt it was inappropriate.

“People might say, ‘oh, enough with that #MeToo,’ but if you really put that aside and listen to the lyrics, it's not something I would want my daughter to be in that kind of a situation,” Desiray said. “The tune might be catchy, but let's maybe not promote that sort of an idea.”

The senseless tyranny of PC.

WGNTV

[Newman]

The senseless tyranny of PC.

WGNTV

Poll results were not visible on the station's website. However, a poll on the station's Facebook page showed that among more than 600 votes by Thursday night, 92% of respondents favored playing the song while just 8% felt it was inappropriate.

"One man with Courage makes a majority," Andy Jackson said, maybe. Maybe 8% or so with the Correct Opinion makes a dictatorship.

Meanwhile it's a fun game.

"The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts roasting....) should be banned because the lyrics include, "folks dressed up like Eskimos...."

Ban "Go Away, Little Girl" ("you're much too young....").

Of course about 92% of hiphop/rap music should go for misogyny. Start with Akon, who recently announced interest in running for president, and whose songs included "I want to fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you...." (I rented a car once that had an Akon CD left in it.)

[Norm dePlume]

Here you go. Liberation. Tyranny lifted. You're welcome.

[Newman]

Obviously flirting must be forbidden entirely.

Songs celebrating flirting are the worst. Look at these lyrics, for example, by an obviously oppressive male:

Sunshine came softly through my a-window today
Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways
It'll take time, I know it but in a while
You're gonna be mine, I know it, we'll do it in style
'Cause I made my mind up you're going to be mine
I'll tell you right now
Any trick in the book now, baby, all that I can find
Everybody's hustlin' just to have a little scene
When I say we'll be cool I think that you know what I mean
We stood on a beach at sunset, do you remember when?
I know a beach where, baby, a-it never ends
When you've made your mind up forever to be mine
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm
I'll pick up your hand and slowly blow your little mind
'Cause I made my mind up you're going to be mine
I'll tell you right now
Any trick in the book now, baby, all that I can find
Superman or Green Lantern ain't got a-nothin' on me
I can make like a turtle and dive for your pearls in the sea, yeah
A you-you-you can just sit there a-thinking on your velvet throne
'Bout all the rainbows a-you can a-have for your own
When you've made your mind up forever to be mine
I'll pick up your hand and slowly blow your little mind
When you've made your mind up forever to be mine....

—Donovan

What a pig.

The supine female:

Love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow
I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go
There isn't an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep me away
I must follow him (follow him), ever since he touched my hand I knew
That near him I always must be
And nothing can keep him from me
He is my destiny (destiny)
I love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow
He'll always be my true love, my true love, my true love
From now until forever, forever, forever
I will follow him (follow him), follow him wherever he may go
There isn't an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep, keep me away
Away from my love (I love him, I love him, I love him)

Stupid woman.

It's probably no accident that actual, physical sexual activity among young people is declining.

The Official Rape Culture on every campus, so rampant you'd think every parent who'd send their daughter to a place where more than one in five will be raped! should be charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Scrubbing all offensive references from pop culture should fix that, I'm sure.

Enjoy.

Or not.

[Gingersnap]

This is a flirtatious romp regardless of which sex is the "aggressor".

I dunno about Norm but I've had more than one. They were fun.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Play it or don't play it. Don't make a big damned deal of it. Who cares? And who even listens to radio any more?

[Gingersnap]

Play it or don't play it. Don't make a big damned deal of it. Who cares? And who even listens to radio any more?

Millions listen.

But your point is taken - why cut a song for any reason?

[Newman]

OR, we can expect people to be responsible adults and decide things for themselves.

If they don't like the words to John Lennon's "Imagine," ignore it. Same for the creepy voyeurism of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." ("He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake....")

How 'bout that light-hearted country ditty, "Poor pitiful me"?

...Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me

Well I met a man out in Hollywood
Now I ain't naming names
Well he really worked me over good
Just like Jesse James
Yes he really worked me over good
He was a credit to his gender
Put me through some changes Lord
Sort of like a Waring blender

Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me....

As the old Beatle sang,

You'd think that people would have had enought\ of silly love songs.
But I look around me and I see it isn't so.
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.
And what's wrong with that?

Well, if you don't know, Sir Paul, you're just another rapist.

Silly love songs should be banned.

[Adam]

[Tom Servo]

How is this any different than the memorandum that Clear Channel released encouraging their 1,700 radio stations to not play certain songs with themes of flying, death or other touchy subjects after 9/11?

The majority of PDs went along with the suggestions and songs like Jet Airliner by Steve Miller and Celebration by Kool & The Gang were either pulled immediately, or pulled after listener complaints.

Some other songs from the list that stood out to me were James Taylor's Fire and Rain, Bits and Pieces by the Dave Clark Five and Tuesday's Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd. But there were also a lot of "how is this even related?" stuff that AC and classic rock stations felt they had to pull.

I don't see how that was any less PC than this.

Now… can we get the tyranny of listeners to vote off any Christmas song by Mariah Carey, because that shit is WAY too overplayed each year.

[Gingersnap]

How is this any different than the memorandum that Clear Channel released encouraging their 1,700 radio stations to not play certain songs with themes of flying, death or other touchy subjects after 9/11?

The majority of PDs went along with the suggestions and songs like Jet Airliner by Steve Miller and Celebration by Kool & The Gang were either pulled immediately, or pulled after listener complaints.

Some other songs from the list that stood out to me were James Taylor's Fire and Rain, Bits and Pieces by the Dave Clark Five and Tuesday's Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd. But there were also a lot of "how is this even related?" stuff that AC and classic rock stations felt they had to pull.

I don't see how that was any less PC than this.

Now… can we get the tyranny of listeners to vote off any Christmas song by Mariah Carey, because that shit is WAY too overplayed each year.

I didn't hear about the flying-song ban but it doesn't seem the same to me. I doubt the stations were instructed to never play any flying song again - it was probably a temporary thing in the wake of the attack. It would not occur to me to make any such restriction even then.

If we start combing through all music for racist, homophobic, sexist, whatever content, we will have virtually nothing to listen to aside from instrumental music and not much of that if we also scrutinize the song writer's private life.

Both rap and hip hop are riddled with sexist content (all the "isms", really) and I dislike it personally but not because I'm worried about being demeaned by some dull-witted former ghetto dweller. It's just bad music.

That said, I have no inclination to have any of it banned whether for PC reasons or wretched musicality. Have at it.

It's never okay to impose current (and ephemeral) notions of propriety on previous eras. You need to meet that stuff in its context - not in yours. That's how we get ridiculous fig-leaf patches.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

How is this any different than the memorandum that Clear Channel released encouraging their 1,700 radio stations to not play certain songs with themes of flying, death or other touchy subjects after 9/11?

The majority of PDs went along with the suggestions and songs like Jet Airliner by Steve Miller and Celebration by Kool & The Gang were either pulled immediately, or pulled after listener complaints.

Some other songs from the list that stood out to me were James Taylor's Fire and Rain, Bits and Pieces by the Dave Clark Five and Tuesday's Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd. But there were also a lot of "how is this even related?" stuff that AC and classic rock stations felt they had to pull.

I don't see how that was any less PC than this.

Now… can we get the tyranny of listeners to vote off any Christmas song by Mariah Carey, because that shit is WAY too overplayed each year.

I'm generally not a Mariah Carey fan, but don't you mess with my Christmas playlist:

[Celeste Chalfonte]

I didn't hear about the flying-song ban but it doesn't seem the same to me. I doubt the stations were instructed to never play any flying song again - it was probably a temporary thing in the wake of the attack. It would not occur to me to make any such restriction even then.

If we start combing through all music for racist, homophobic, sexist, whatever content, we will have virtually nothing to listen to aside from instrumental music and not much of that if we also scrutinize the song writer's private life.

Both rap and hip hop are riddled with sexist content (all the "isms", really) and I dislike it personally but not because I'm worried about being demeaned by some dull-witted former ghetto dweller. It's just bad music.

That said, I have no inclination to have any of it banned whether for PC reasons or wretched musicality. Have at it.

It's never okay to impose current (and ephemeral) notions of propriety on previous eras. You need to meet that stuff in its context - not in yours. That's how we get ridiculous fig-leaf patches.

Did I ever tell you about the gay guys I knew whose neighbors (suburban Sacramento) thought their David garden statue was both gay and obscene, and wanted them to cover it? So the guys put a Speedo on it.

[Tom Servo]

I didn't hear about the flying-song ban but it doesn't seem the same to me. I doubt the stations were instructed to never play any flying song again - it was probably a temporary thing in the wake of the attack. It would not occur to me to make any such restriction even then.

If we start combing through all music for racist, homophobic, sexist, whatever content, we will have virtually nothing to listen to aside from instrumental music and not much of that if we also scrutinize the song writer's private life.

Both rap and hip hop are riddled with sexist content (all the "isms", really) and I dislike it personally but not because I'm worried about being demeaned by some dull-witted former ghetto dweller. It's just bad music.

That said, I have no inclination to have any of it banned whether for PC reasons or wretched musicality. Have at it.

It's never okay to impose current (and ephemeral) notions of propriety on previous eras. You need to meet that stuff in its context - not in yours. That's how we get ridiculous fig-leaf patches.

I'm not seeing anywhere where the song was banned and can never be played again.

Next Christmas it'll be back in rotation, probably, because people will have forgotten about the kerfuffle.

Furthermore, there are a million other Christmas stations online and on-air that are still playing the song, so there is no 'ban' of any kind except for one stupid* station. The stations that play Christmas each year (outside of ones that do it as a transition/stunt to a new format in the new year) are all adult contemporary stations, the most milquetoast bland "safe for the family" secular music that exists. You aren't going to find any rap or hip-hop or even classic rock there, nothing offensive and nothing that you couldn't play at work.

Frankly, I question your judgement that you're going to find sexist, racist, homophobic or misogynistic content in — as you imply — all vocal music. I've got somewhere around 13,000 songs on my computer and I can count the homophobic, misogynistic or sexist/racist content with both hands and one large toe. Hell, most of that is due to my beloved collection of Johnny Rebel songs. Best not to Google that one.

* - It's an Entercom station, say no more.

[Lady Marva]

Don't make a big damned deal of it. Who cares? And who even listens to radio any more?

People who drive cars. DUH.