Last night during my roll call I wrote The Seven Dirty Words on the board, and said that whoever could tell me their significance, including the name associated with them, would get off an hour early.

Nobody. Not one person of the 12 sitting there knew! And two of them were 40+. I was disappointed!


Once I explained it, we talked about the FCC and radio transmissions, and not using any of the 7, their derivatives, or any other words that could be readily interpreted as obscene, over any of our radio channels. Particularly the recorded ones.


No names were named, but my best officer, who casually dropped the F bomb the night before on our talkaround channel I happen to scan, had a very sheepish look when we were done


These days a lot of cities have communication systems that identify the radios that are used when they key up. If the radios are assigned in the system it shows the person's information. Just like body cameras and GPS in police cars, you can't get away with shit anymore. When I started that wasn't in place. Hell, when I started Fire/EMS we didn't even have repeaters in my county. As a cop we had some good times..."Phantom flushers" at 3am, county-wide fart broadcastings, and the best was when that one annoying MFer (if you don't know who it was/is, it might be you ) would ramble on for 30 seconds and people would start keying up over them to shut them up.

Ahhh...the good old days...your tax dollars at work!

Hopefully my point stuck. I'm finding things weekly that have to be reviewed, usually much more directly than that. Trying not to make everyone feel like I'm on their case, but with a shift of mostly rookies I have to be.

you talking George Carlin circa 1968 here?

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
you talking George Carlin circa 1968 here?

Yessir. But some bits should transcend generations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Once I explained it, we talked about the FCC and radio transmissions, and not using any of the 7, their derivatives, or any other words that could be readily interpreted as obscene, over any of our radio channels.

A licensee can be fined for that shit

Back when I had a Ham Radio license I was stopped at a light one morning, in the left-turn lane. Truck coming the other way with one of those skeletal racks in the bed, and a bunch of pipe on top. Must've been asleep at the wheel, because he panic-stopped at the light.

And all that pipe came flying off the top of that rack, right in my direction, some of it pin-wheeling.

I just happened to have the mic keyed at that instant, making some comments. I froze in horror, and said "FUCK!", clear as day.

Luckily the pipes all missed me, but one flew by not a foot from the driver's side of my car.

After the pipes came to a rest I realized I still had a death grip on the mic, then remembered what I'd said.

Oops!

I've had a few "open mic" oh-shits! lol

At least with Ham radio they can only catch you if you sit in one spot doing something stupid for a long while, or drop you callsign in.

With these dang radio systems if you so much as click the mic, they know who you are. Big brother!

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I've had a few "open mic" oh-shits! lol

At least with Ham radio they can only catch you if you sit in one spot doing something stupid for a long while, or drop you callsign in.

Well, they're not going to expend the resources to hunt a mobile down for that, but one is obliged to re-ID every ten minutes

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
you talking George Carlin circa 1968 here?

Yessir. But some bits should transcend generations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0

Especially when they're the basis for seminal Supreme Court opinions - Carlin's routine will live as long as they publish SCOTUS decisions! Hell, even Lenny Bruce never pulled that one off!

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978)
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-...e-court/438/726.html

He was arrested at Milwaukee's Summerfest in 1972 after that routine. I got a chance see him at the Riverside Theater in the 90s and it was still funny then.

Psstt.... Candyman...

Man, how cable has changed things...I think you hear all 7 in the first ten minutes of any episode of "Deadwood".

Old story from the Air Force, ALLEGLEDLY overheard on an Area Control Center Frequency at 0200-0300L:

Pilot: I'm f*****g bored!
ACC: Aircraft making last transmission, please ident.
Pilot: I said I'm f*****g bored, not f*****g stupid.

Reminds me of the story of somebody who slipped and said "shit!" on approach control frequency.

Approach control supervisor asked, "who said 'shit?'"

After a moment of radio silence, various flights began checking in:

"Delta 286 didn't say 'shit.'"

"United 418 didn't say 'shit.'"

"TWA 72 didn't say 'shit.'"

Radio fun:
When the dispatcher pissed me off, I would stop the car, stretch out the mike cord until it was in front of the siren speaker, turn on the siren and key the mike. That showed her!
I had a duck pond on my beat. The ducks would come to the car if I opened the door. I would then hold the mike down to the ducks and let them quack into the open mike. The IA investigation into the duck transmissions was hilarious!
In the service, a dude I worked with had a terrible stutter. His name was Jacobsen. I would pull up to his post with the mike hidden in my hand, key it and ask him "hey Jake, have you seen the duty officer? Jake would reply "I aint seen that son, son, son of a bitch"! As I drove off I could hear his post phone ringing.
Modern digital comms are no fun.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
and the best was when that one annoying MFer (if you don't know who it was/is, it might be you ) would ramble on for 30 seconds and people would start keying up over them to shut them up.

I worked for 11 years on the security force for a large defense contractor, as an officer then shift supervisor. We had this one guy who quickly earned the name "Frankie The Phone" who would key up on the damn radio and start a dissertation. After he would stop, you'd hear a dispatcher say "Officer So-And-So...FIND A PHONE IF YOU ARE TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING!"

When I was on the local Volunteer Fire Department, we kept pretty close control over our portable radios. Other departments in the area issued every swinging dick in the department their own radio. You can imagine the fustercluck that became at any fire they rolled on.

It's also important to note that transmissions on these radios were NOT secure in any way. Anybody with a scanner (and that's about everybody around here) could monitor our channel.

So anyway, we had us a dandy little fire at a year-around cottage on the pond. (There's another story that goes with that for another time...). We got it knocked down in good shape and sent a crew in to do overhaul. One guy (I don't recall, but it weren't me, I was running the pumper) gets on the radio and broadcasts, just as clear as you please, "We've got a crispy critter in here."

I looked at the Chief and it was pretty obvious that he was trying to decide whether to shit or go blind. Never seen that old fart move so fast. First he grabbed the radio out of the culprit's hand (and visibly restrained himself from sticking it where the sun don't shine) and then he announced over the radio that it appeared that a pet had succumbed to smoke inhalation.

The very next meeting/training session of the department was quite pointed...

Chongo -Good for you for injecting some humor into the training.

I had an uncle who owned an AM radio station back in the 50s-60s. He got a call one morning at 4am from the FCC regional office. Apparently his midnight to 6am DJ was playing original uncut Justin Wilson records. Some of the stuff that’s played today would have set off nuclear alarms back then.

I am really shocked at the general lack of pop culture knowledge of my co workers. I’m 44 and have co workers ranging from 40s to 22 I will drop a quote that I think should be common knowledge and crickets. Carlin, Cheech and Chong, classic movies like blues brothers animal house, old TV shows and almost all of them were original material before I was around or old enough to pay attention.

So I saw these movies and comedians in my 20’s 30’s etc. but all these kids ? Crickets. So doesn’t surprise me your department stood there with blank stares.

And tits shouldn't even be on the list.