On Our Guard for Sin and Degradation

Meredith Wright sends us word of yet another casualty of the indecency crackdown, as reported by Lloyd Grove in the New York Daily News:

The Federal Communications Commission apparently has broadcasters so scared that radio stations that air "Broadway's Biggest Hits," a nationally syndicated weekly show, refused to air a satirical song from the 1975 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning musical "A Chorus Line."

WFAS-AM in Hartsdale, along with a station in San Francisco, substituted a G-rated tune from "Bye Bye Birdie" for "A Chorus Line's" "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three," which contains a comical reference to surgical enhancements and the showbiz-hiring advantages of "T & A."

"Biggest Hits" producer Bud Wilkinson, whose show is carried on three dozen stations, told me yesterday he won't include such racy material in the future.

"As a producer, I would love to, but as a businessperson, I'm caving, because my customers are concerned about being fined," he said. "And it just makes me want to vomit."