IT'S ON THE AIR, IT'S EVERYWHERE; SMUT.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Staff Writer

When Van Nuys mom Jeanette Gilmore goes to pick up her kids at school, she has to remember to shut off the dashboard radio. That's because her sons have overheard topics on talk radio that sparked a stream of bathroom talk in the car.

The problem, Gilmore says, is the constant sex talk on the AM and FM dial.

And it isn't just the usual suspects - morning shows like Howard Stern on KLSX-FM (97.1), Kevin and Bean on KROQ-FM (106.7) and Mark and Brian on KLOS-FM (95.5). With the current scandal involving a White House intern and President Clinton, sex jokes are cropping up everywhere.

Music programming isn't immune, either. Rock radio staples have included Prodigy's charmingly titled ``Smack My Bitch Up,'' Alanis Morissette's ode to oral sex in a movie theater (with a line that would never make it on network TV), and Nine Inch Nails' bleeped-but-still-audible chorus of ``I want to (expletive) you like an animal.''

While TV programming is always under close scrutiny with a ratings system currently in use and the content-blocking ``V-chip'' just down the road, radio seems hardly regulated at all. Unlike network TV programming and strictly rated theatrical fare, the radio waves are filled with smut, nearly audible four-letter words and all manner of shock shlock.

Botttom line

And it sells. Ad rates are up at the loudest talk outlets - KLSX and KFI-AM (640) - and on music stations like KROQ (which carries the nightly sex-talk show ``Loveline'') where spots for services such as breast implants, penis enlargements and condoms don't pull any punches.

``I get giggles from the kids sometimes when they hear something on the radio,'' said Gilmore, 37, who has sons ages 8 and 11. ``They immediately start the bathroom talk, which is so hard to control anyway. I turn it off right away and try and talk about it with them. I try to take the power away from stuff like that by telling the kids that those words are sort of funny but not OK to use.''

The government agency mandated to oversee the airwaves, the Federal Communications Commission, points to a safe harbor between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when offensive material must not be broadcast because of the possibility that children might be listening. After 10 p.m., broadcasters are afforded more leeway.

Still, any definition of obscenity is dependent on community standards and other vague criteria, the FCC says.

But community standards for TV and radio seem different. For some reason, the line that Morissette uses in her hit ``You Oughta Know'' about an oral sex act in a theater has played countless times on radio for more than a year and has hardly raised an eyebrow. Yet, if the same phrase were used during prime-time network TV, it likely would cause an uproar.

And, instead of drawing negative attention, tasteless radio simply spawns imitators.

At least that's the case at, for example, local talk outlet KLSX, which starts the day with Stern, who has pushed the boundaries of taste by describing naked women in the studio with him and his own sexual response. The station then follows with a daily lineup of hosts such as Tom Leykis endlessly interviewing sex therapists, escorts, lipstick lesbians and strippers while asking callers if they have a pet name for their genitals.

How'd it happen?

Jack Silver, KLSX's program director, agrees that the abundance of today's talk programming starts with the crotch.

```How it got to that point or when it will even out, I don't know,'' he said. ``But when (Leykis) does his open-line Friday, when anyone can call about anything, I've been in the screening room, and the audience is not calling to talk about Saddam Hussein. The callers appear to be in the mood to talk about sex. But if you look at the balance, it's not as bad as it seems.

``I mean, I enjoy a good discussion on health care or schools or parenting. As far as what I call my penis, I'll handle that on my own time.''

Silver says KLSX, which also broadcasts the Nasty Man show and the Tim Conway-Doug Steckler program, targets an average listener he describes as ``a 33-year-old male with the ethnic makeup of Los Angeles who is probably a little more upscale and has a little more cash than you would expect.''

Again, it isn't just KLSX. Even usually staid talk station KABC-AM (790), an outlet that clearly targets an older demographic, can get down and dirty in the morning with co-hosts Ken Minyard and Peter Tilden, who spent many an hour on the lighter side of the Clinton-intern situation.

``Talk radio today is a lot of voyeurism,'' said John Gregory, professor of communications at Pasadena City College. ``You have to belittle someone on the air so you can feel more acceptable to yourself - that's what we really have here. Stern and Don Imus are the radio equivalent of the supermarket tabloids. The theory is, `Let's give 'em a little smut, and if they like a little, a lot of smut would be even better.' ''

It's paying off. Stern is perennially the top-rated English-language morning host in many of the nation's largest cities. And locally, KFI's Bill Handel and KIIS-FM's (102.7) Rick Dees, both no stranger to the Monica Lewinsky joke, join Stern among the top ratings-grabbers.

``I just don't know how fascinating all that (sex and bathroom talk) really is,'' said KABC weekend host Joe Crummey, who also has worked at KLSX and KFI. ``I like to be dirty on the air sometimes, but the jury is out on the overall ratings (of a station like KLSX). They're looking for a niche by saying, `We're the station that talks dirty all the time. We say penis a lot. We're the penis station. That makes us cool.' It holds very little intrigue for me.''

`Playing to the room'

For his part, Leykis, whose daily program is syndicated to 200 stations across the country, claims he is merely ``playing to the room'' on KLSX.

When he hosted a newsy, issues-oriented program on KFI several years ago, the audience was at least a decade older than his current audience, Leykis said, adding that today's listeners want more personal subject matter.

``In L.A., a lot of people don't vote, and many of them don't even know what city they're living in,'' Leykis said. ``There are 85 cities in Southern California, and as soon as you talk about one city, you alienate 95 percent of your audience. It's too big a place to talk about local issues.''

In his defense, Leykis pointed to recent shows that dealt with the barroom smoking ban, the Clinton scandal and the American Indian controversy over sports team monikers.

``We do issues, but they're the ones that hit you in the face,'' he said.

Not everyone feels the airwaves should be regulated. In fact, most listeners end up voting with their radio dial; nothing works like the off button.

``It's the FCC's job to regulate radio, but I never found that a very inspiring idea,'' said public-radio commentator Sarah Vowell, author of ``Radio On: A Listener's Diary,'' in which she listened to radio for one year searching for signs of intelligent life and recording her impressions.

``It's my job to believe in free speech, and if people aren't regulating the bad stuff it means they're not regulating the good stuff,'' she said. ``Nobody keeps track of it (radio), and because nobody ever knows what's on it, you can turn it on and experience that rarest of all things - surprise.''

Still, Vowell said, after a full year of nonstop radio listening, much of it talk programming, she can't stand the stuff today.

``I won't listen to talk radio now because a year of it damaged me,'' she explained. ``I'll never get over the idiocy and meanness I was subjected to day after day. It made me a more cynical person.''

What makes broadcast obscene

The broadcast of obscene or indecent material is a violation of federal law any time of day or night, but federal guidelines offer plenty of leeway.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, which enforces the prohibition against offensive programming, obscene material must meet a three-prong test (note to the FCC: ixnay on the prong metaphors).

That test asks whether an average person, applying contemporary community standards, finds that the material appeals to the prurient interest; that the material depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and that the material lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Broadcast indecency is defined as language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive ... sexual or excretory organs or activities.

Both radio and TV broadcasts that fit within the definition and are aired between the 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. safe-harbor time period are subject to indecency enforcement action.

However, the FCC doesn't independently monitor TV and radio for indecent programming. Its enforcement actions are based on documented complaints received from the public.

Complaints should include a tape or transcript of the program or significant excerpts; the date and time of the broadcast; and the call sign of the station.

The FCC suggests that the complaint first should be submitted to the TV or radio station involved or directly to the FCC's Complaints and Political Programming Branch, Enforcement Division, Mass Media Bureau, 2025 M St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20554.

- Fred Shuster

Official FCC action begins with one citizen

One citizen can make a difference when it comes to alerting federal officials about offensive material on the airwaves.

Just ask Las Vegas resident Al Westcott, who taped and transcribed portions of the Howard Stern show in 1992 on Los Angeles station KLSX-FM (97.1) and mailed his complaint to the FCC.

According to Westcott's letter, Stern described ``sexual and excretory activities and organs in patently offensive terms.'' Moreover, the material was broadcast at times when there was risk children may have been in the audience.

The FCC voted to fine KLSX $105,000 and proposed a $600,000 fine against Infinity Broadcasting, which employed Stern and owned his New York radio base and another 17 radio stations across the country.

Infinity settled with the government, and the company eventually was sold to CBS.

- Fred Shuster

CAPTION(S):

Drawing, 4 Photos, 2 Boxes

Drawing: (Cover--Color) AIR POLLUTION

WITH RAUNCHY LYRICS AND RISQUE TOPICS DOMINATING THE AIRWAVES, DOES L.A. RADIO NEED A GAG ORDER?

Bradford Mar/Daily News

Photo: (1) Tom Leykis claims he is merely ``playing to the room'' on KLSX.

(2) Alanis Morissette's ode to sex in a movie theater has hardly raised an eyebrow.

(3) Shock jock Howard Stern has been the top-rated English-language morning host in many of the largest U.S. cities.

(4) Rock radio staples have included Prodigy's ``Smack My Bitch Up.''

Box: (1) What makes broadcast obscene (See Text)

(2) Official FCC action begins with one citizen (See Text)