Last night at the station, whilst I was sorting thru the playlist CDs trying to decide what all to play, I noticed that someone had written a note on my review of the new Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan CD (yes, I know he's been dead for years but the post-mortem career is hardly a novelty these days). Which note read "track 1 = indecent." All together now: wtf?!!? After posting to the list about it, I found out that earlier in the week someone had posted a message to the request line to tell the DJ that the track they'd just played was indecent and they should note that on the case. None of which is out of the ordinary or eyebrow-raising. Except, again, wtf?!!? Aside from the fact that XDU has no policy for screening indecencies in Punjabi or Urdu or any south Asian language. Aside from the fact that, no, foreign words that just happen to sound indecent are not in fact indecent. Aside from the fact that I'd already listened to this particular 18 min 48 sec track several times while reviewing the CD without noticing any indecencies. And then went downstairs after my show and listened to it again. Even without all that, still... dude, WTF!??! Is there some sub-genre of gangsta qawwali with which I was previously unfamiliar? (and if so, where can I buy some?) I know, I know... it's a good thing that DJs are listening to the station and trying to catch and correct mistakes, esp. with regard to audible indecencies going out over the air. But even the most superficial awareness of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan oughta be enough to tell you that, whatever you think you just heard, he did not say "shit" in the middle of 18+ minutes of qawwali vocal improvising. It really did take me several tries to get my email comments to the DJ mailing list (last night) and the XDU board (this morning) not to just be all up in someone's grill. (that's what this blog is for -- lucky you!) My main concern there was to clear up for any DJs who might want to play the CD that, no, it's not indecent and not get into any huge brouhahas. But here on my time I'll just wrap up by saying that, really, there's just NO excuse for that level of ig'nance and if one really does know that little about foreign music/language/culture one ought, politely, to keep one's fucking mouth shut