HOWL broadcast 
 
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 21:12:06 -0500 (CDT)

Subject: HOWL broadcast

I'm a day-or-two late with this news-item - but of course the general issue is 
still wide open -- HOWL has, once-and-for-ever, been declared
to be not obscene, but the recent FCC extentions to bar "profanity" on air may 
allow the FCC to punish stations broadcasting HOWL because the definition of 
profane is peculiar to the FCC, has nothing to do with the English language, 
and may - ultimately - be approved by the Supreme Court.
   So congrats to WBAI for having the spine to air HOWL yesterday

Michael

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<http://www.pacifica.org/program-guide/op,segment-page/station_id,0/segment_id,469/>

See the related piece at
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/03/MN0PSIM67.DTL

Howl Against Censorship

Fifty  years  ago,  on  October 3, Judge Clayton Horn ruled that Allen 
Ginsberg's  great epic Beat-era poem HOWL was not  obscene  but  instead, a 
work of literary and social merit. This ruling  allowed  for  the publication 
of HOWL and exonerated the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who faced jail time and 
a fine 50 years ago for publishing "HOWL."

Fifty  years later, with draconian FCC fines for language infractions, you 
still  can't  hear  HOWL  on  the radio. That's something to howl about. This 
October 3, WBAI and Pacifica Radio Network invite you to join our commemoration 
of Judge Horn's ruling on behalf of free speech, by listening  to  a  recording 
of  the poet Allen Ginsberg, himself, reading the unadulterated HOWL.

The commemoration of HOWL will also be (include) Lawrence Ferlingetti, poet Bob 
Holman of the Bowery Poetry Club, first amendment lawyer Ron Collins, Beat 
Generation scholar and filmmaker Regina Weinreich, WBAI's Program Director 
Bernard White and WBAI Arts Director Janet Coleman, who will discuss the 
relevance of the poem to language censorship in broadcast media today. Allen 
Ginsberg's reading of HOWL is copyrighted and used by permission of Fantasy 
Records. From "Howls, Raps & Roars:  Recordings from the San Francisco Poetry 
Renaissance" (produced by Bill Belmont; Fantasy, 1993).  Occasional musical 
background from "Pull My Daisy and Other Jazz Classics" by the David Amram 
Quartet.

With  thanks  for  the  generous  efforts  of John Crigler, Barney and Astrid 
Rossett,  Hettie  Jones,  David  Dozer, Chante Mouton, and Jon Almeleh, Nathan 
Moore, Ursula Ruedenberg and Pete Korakis of Pacifica.

DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE:

You can download a 128k mp3 audio file of this complete special at 
<http://www.audioport.org/audioport_files/specials/Howl-Final-128.mp3>.

You  can  read  the  full text of HOWL here. 
<http://members.tripod.com/~Sprayberry/poems/howl.txt> Feel free to follow 
along with Ginsberg's reading.