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the_marq · 08-31-2005, 03:28 PM

I can't decide, is this over stupid or a good idea given the current state of affairs in the US?

Linky: http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/08/3109.cfm

Article:

Quote:

Ottawa Radio Stations Pull Hip Song After Hurricane Tragedy
Wednesday August 31, 2005 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

The Tragically Hip

Two rock stations near the top of Ottawa's radio dial have opted to remove a listener-favourite song from their playlists for the time being, hoping not to upset any listeners after category 4 hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast, practically submerging New Orleans with flood waters.

If you haven't guessed already, the song with the currently awkward title is "New Orleans Is Sinking," The Tragically Hip's 1989 classic which has long been a staple on both The Bear (106.9) and CHEZ (106.1) in O-Town, averaging two or three spins a week on either station.

The Bear accidentally aired the song on Monday afternoon, around the time of the storm's peak — when they made the connection between the track and the tragedy, however, it was pulled from rotation. Program director Gord Taylor told the Ottawa Sun that their playlist is made days ahead of time. "It just happened to land on our schedule before we realized the full impact of the storm," he said. "It wasn’t a conscious decision to play 'New Orleans Is Sinking' just as the city was really sinking."

Well, flooding, but we get the point. CHEZ's program director lucked out and took the song off their playlist before it had a chance to offend.

Of course, all this "sensitivity" stuff seems a little ridiculous to the cynics here at ChartAttack, but the Hip track does hit pretty close to home on this one, so maybe giving the song a short vacation isn't such a bad idea. It makes a hell of a lot more sense than the post-September 11th recommendations from radio kings Clear Channel, who wanted their U.S. stations to avoid a huge list of potentially offensive titles, most famously "Great Balls Of Fire," "What A Wonderful World" and "It's Raining Men."

Meanwhile, the Hip song should still appear on the fan-voted track list of Yer Favourites, the Best Of part of an upcoming CD/DVD box set from the band. Titled Hipeponymous, the set is scheduled for release November 1.

—David McDougall

At first blush it seems like "well that's a stupid thing to do... who cares?" Then again, after 9-11 people were afraid to say the words "two" and "towers" in the same sentence for years.