Clear Channel Communications didn’t bother to wait for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate complaints about the Regular Guys, the hosts of an Atlanta radio show that inadvertently broadcast a sexually explicit interview with Wicked Girl Devinn Lane last month, they fired them as soon as complaints were filed.
Clear Channel fired hosts Larry Wachs and Eric Von Haessler on Friday after hearing that complaints had been filed with the FCC about the show.
Wachs and Von Haessler had been on suspension since March 19, when they had accidentally broadcast Lane recording a sexually explicit conversation for a conceptual joke that was meant to mock the FCC’s recent indecency crackdown.
The hosts decided it would be funny to record Lane talking explicitly about sex, and then play it backwards on air for a segment they call “Backward Smut”. The idea was that indecent and even obscene words would be said, but no one could get in trouble because no one would be able to understand what was being said.
Unfortunately, a microphone was left on, and a good portion of the explicit conversation was audibly broadcast over a Honda commercial, and Lane was heard to say “fuckhole,” “cock,” and “ass.”
Lane, who appeared on the show to promote an in-store, told AVN.com exactly what happened in a previous interview. “Somebody came in and said, ‘It’s going out on the air,’ and everybody was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Obviously we cut it at that point and the recoding stopped,” Lane remembered. “The engineer said that it didn’t happen, he was listening as it went out, but everyone’s heart just sank at that point.”
Though she had many radio appearances during her adult career, this is the first time Lane has run into any kind of problem.
“I’d never intentionally do anything that would hurt someone’s livelihood. I’ve done tons of radio over the last five years, and I’ve never had any problems,” Lane said.
The decision to fire Wachs and Von Haessler was announced the day after Clear Channel was hit with a $495,000 fine by for an episode of the “The Howard Stern Radio Show” that was broadcast on six of their stations last year.
"In line with our zero-tolerance policy and after conducting a thorough investigation of a March 19 broadcast on WKLS-FM, we have decided we will no longer broadcast the 'The Regular Guys,' " Pat McDonnell, Clear Channel regional vice president, said in a prepared statement issued to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A name familiar to the adult industry, Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values, applauded the firing. "I am very impressed with Clear Channel trying to fix the problem internally," CCV president Phil Burress told the Journal-Constitution. "We as citizens have a right not to be offended over our public airwaves. If you play with fire, you get burnt.
Clear Channel decided to no longer run Stern’s syndicated show on the six stations that they own that were carrying it. Stern still appears on 35 stations nationwide.
