SHOCK JOCKS DEFEND THEIR PAST

From David Hinckley of the NY Daily News:
Radio's current nervousness about potentially offensive content has sparked voluntary confessions of penance by several hosts whose "edge" has gotten them attention in the past. The often controversial Mancow Muller, a syndicated morning host who has never been heard regularly in New York, recently told Radio Ink magazine many of the things that got him labeled a "shock jock" were not his idea.

Recalling bits that drew complaints to the FCC in the '90s, mostly for sex stuff, Muller said they "were not my creations, but those of program directors who thought they knew what people wanted to hear."

Left on his own now by the Talk Radio Network, Muller said he's a different animal: "What interests me radio-wise is far from the 'danger zone.' You don't have to interview too many strippers or porn stars to realize they have absolutely nothing to say. It's voyeuristic, it's easy and I got very bored with it - but I was told to do it. To me, it's bad radio and I thought it was bad radio at the time. I've evolved from that."

Muller's remarks are eerily similar to the way WWPR (105.1 FM) morning host Star talks about his days at WQHT (97.1 FM). There, he says, he was told to do "things I'm ashamed of. My radio journey has now evolved. I don't have to do that any more and I don't want to do that anymore."

Star also periodically cracks that his show "is about protecting the license."

These guys aren't saying all this only to cleanse their troubled souls, of course. They're also looking ahead to the radio landscape of, say, next January, when Howard Stern will have moved to Sirius satellite radio and left a lot of listeners for someone else to try and pick up on over-the-air radio.

Both Mancow and Star would love to grab some of the stations Stern will be leaving, which may also be part of the reason Star now is doing more a general-interest show and less a hip-hop show than he did on Hot-97.

Whatever the nuances, any host has a much better shot at filling the Stern void if he (or she) won't be waving any red flags in front of the FCC.

Infinity, Stern's company, has hinted it may replace him with several different hosts or shows, not just one.

"As the day gets closer," says Tom Taylor, editor of the trade mag Inside Radio, "we're going to see a lot of positioning."