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Today's Song may not be the Greatest Song of 1970, but it certainly created a stir--and it gets points for causing the FCC to write a rule that had been unwritten since radio broadcasting began in the 1920s.
"Indiana Wants Me" by (One-Hit Wonder) R. Dean Taylor began with several seconds of a siren blaring. Coincidentally, I began my radio career in 1970, and I was told in no uncertain terms that sirens were strictly forbidden because they scared people--and if they were driving, they might cause an accident.
That made sense to me as a 16-year-old radio DJ, but what DIDN'T make sense was how stations were getting away with playing "Indiana Wants Me." Actually, the sirens made sense in context, since the song was a sung by a man who had murdered someone for slandering his wife-or-girlfriend. In the end, he was cornered by the police, and died in a shootout.
Actually, no one was really "getting away with" playing anything.There were quite a few complaints--and not just to radio stations...but directly to the FCC as well.
This was problematic, and since stations were required to keep a record of complaints to be reviewed by the FCC at license renewal time, a clarification was order.
Here's what the FCC wrote:
The selection and presentation of advertising and other promotional material are, of course, the responsibility of licensees. However, in this selection process, licensees should take into account, under the public interest standard, possible hazards to the public. Accordingly, in making decisions as to acceptability of commercial and other announcements, licensees should be aware of possible adverse consequences of the use of sirens and other alarming sound effects.
At that point, Rare Earth Records, re-issued "Indiana Wants Me" without the opening sirens. Some radio stations played the new version, some did their own "siren editing," and because the sirens still remained near the end of the song, other stations just stopped playing it altogether.
But even after all the controversy, "Indiana Wants Me:" was a big hit: #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the US, as well as #2 in Canada and the UK (where similar restrictions were in place.)
Note: Oddly, no one complained about the gunfire in the song.
"Indiana Wants Me" by R. Dean Taylor: a Noteworthy, if not a "Great Song of 1970! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZL_tZxyBDo
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