Editing Shock jock (section)

===North America===
* 1990: Liz Randolph, a personality at [[KDKA-FM|WBZZ]] in [[Pittsburgh]], successfully sued the station and its two morning hosts, [[Jim Quinn]] and Banana Don Jefferson, for a [[running gag]] [[sexual harassment|sexually harassing]] her.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-15-ca-1255-story.html  Radio Employee Wins Suit Over Aired Personal Jokes], from the ''Los Angeles Times'', February 15, 1990</ref> Quinn remained in his position but over the next several years would gradually transition to a politically oriented format for his show.
* 1991: [[Rusty Humphries]], then at [[KEGL]], orchestrates a stunt attempting to sneak toy weapons onto a plane at [[Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Nancy |last=St. Pierre |work=The Dallas Morning News |title=D/FW accuses 1 in hoax KEGL worker named in toy-gun smuggling |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED561D9D3D82050&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |date=January 16, 1991}}</ref>
* 1994: [[Mancow Muller]] of [[KYLD]]-FM orchestrates a stunt blocking off the westbound lanes of the [[San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge]] during rush hour while his on-air sidekick got a haircut, in response to (false) allegations then-President [[Bill Clinton]] would have caused delays at [[Los Angeles International Airport]] by [[Bill Clinton haircut controversy|getting his hair cut aboard Air Force One]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-09-17-mn-36084-story.html|title=Did Reporters Let Their Feelings Affect Coverage? : Journalism: Resentment over White House treatment led to overblown and hostile stories about Clinton.|last=SHAW|first=DAVID|date=1993-09-17|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-10-29}}</ref><ref name=Legends>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=John W.|title=Missouri Legends: Famous people from the Show-Me State|year=2008|publisher=Reedy Press|pages=210–211|location=St. Louis}}</ref> Muller and the radio station both got sued.
* 1995: [[Howard Stern]] responds to the death of singer [[Selena]] with a comment on how "[[Alvin and the Chipmunks]] have more soul" than Latin musicians and that "Spanish people have the worst taste in music." Stern survived the resultant outrage from the Hispanic community, which extended so far as an arrest warrant from [[Harlingen, Texas]], that the local justice of the peace left open for a year but, because Stern never entered Harlingen, went unenforced.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/selena/95/04/06/stern.html|title=Selena's public outraged|date=10 July 2007|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710182116/http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/selena/95/04/06/stern.html|archive-date=10 July 2007}}</ref>
* 1998: Stern is banned from [[CHOM-FM]] in [[Montreal]] after remarking that "there's something about the (French) language that turns you into a pussy-assed jack-off." His only other Canadian affiliate, [[CILQ]] [[Toronto]], sustained a barrage of complaints for three years afterward before dropping the show in 2001.<ref>[http://www.animaux.net/stern/toronto.html 'King of all media' loses toehold in Canada] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981206002047/http://www.animaux.net/stern/toronto.html |date=1998-12-06 }} ''The Ottawa Citizen'' November 24, 2001</ref>
* February 24, 1999: [[Doug Tracht]] aka The Greaseman was fired from WARW (now [[WIAD]]) after he played a song by [[Grammy Awards|Grammy Award]]-winning rapper [[Lauryn Hill]] and made a derogatory remark about the lynching and dragging death of [[Murder of James Byrd Jr.|James Byrd Jr.]] at the hands of three white men in [[Jasper, Texas]], which was ruled a hate crime. A day earlier, the ringleader John William King was found guilty of Byrd's murder. King and his accomplice Lawrence Brewer have since been executed. The third man Shawn Berry is currently serving his life sentence at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's [[Ramsey Unit]]. It wasn't the first time Tracht made insensitive remarks towards [[African Americans]]. On [[Martin Luther King Day]] in 1986 while working at [[WWDC-FM|DC101]], Tracht made the following remark about Dr. King's assassination, "Kill four more and we can take a whole week off."
* June 12, 2001: A rumor that [[Britney Spears]] was dead was scotched by her publicists after the story was spread by two US radio DJs and a hoax website using the [[BBC]] logo. Dallas shock jocks Kramer and Twitch told listeners to their KEGL-FM evening show that pop singer Spears and her then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake had been involved in a car accident in Los Angeles. The hoax sparked panic among fans, who called police and fire departments in the hundreds. The story was then turned into a spoof version of a BBC News Online web page, and the link was sent around the world by e-mail. The BBC lodged a strong protest, and the spoof page was removed.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1388131.stm|title=Britney Death Hoax Fools Fans|date=June 12, 2001|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>
* August 16, 2002: [[Opie and Anthony]] sponsored a contest where the goal was to have sex in notable public places, called ''Sex For Sam''. The contest went without a major outcry until ''Sex for Sam 3'' after a couple had sex in a [[Vestibule (architecture)|vestibule]] at [[St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York|St. Patrick's Cathedral]]. The resulting controversy, coupled with an earlier controversy stemming from a raunchy party in [[Buffalo, New York]], led to [[Infinity Broadcasting]] cancelling the ''Opie and Anthony Show''. Infinity was fined US$357,500 for the incident.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/djs-dumped-over-church-sex-stunt/|title=DJs Dumped Over Church Sex Stunt|last=Collins|first=Dan|date=August 21, 2002|publisher=CBS News}}</ref>
* 2003: [[Tom Leykis]] outs the name of the accuser in the [[Kobe Bryant sexual assault case]]. The woman's name had been redacted from all other media reports about the case to date.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/news/2003/07/22/bryant_radio/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030725021504/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/news/2003/07/22/bryant_radio/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 25, 2003|title=Women's groups outraged by radio host|publisher=Reuters|date=2003-07-23|access-date=2008-02-12}}</ref>
* January 2004: [[Bubba the Love Sponge]] receives a $755,000 fine from the FCC for a series of sketches that implied cartoon characters were having sex.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fcc-issues-steep-indecency-fines/ |work=CBS News |title=FCC Issues Steep Indecency Fines |date=2004-01-27}}</ref>
* April 8, 2004: [[Howard Stern]]'s show was dropped by [[Clear Channel Communications]] after they were [[FCC fines of The Howard Stern Show|fined US$495,000 for a number of statements]] made during a Stern show.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2004-02-25/entertainment/stern.suspension_1_standards-of-responsible-broadcasting-indecent-content-todd-clem?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713044826/http://articles.cnn.com/2004-02-25/entertainment/stern.suspension_1_standards-of-responsible-broadcasting-indecent-content-todd-clem?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2012|publisher=CNN|title=Howard Stern suspended for indecency|date=February 24, 2004}}</ref> Stern later used his remaining [[market share]] to criticize [[Clear Channel Communications|Clear Channel]] and the [[George W. Bush administration|Bush administration]], and left the public airwaves to move to [[satellite radio]], which is not subject to the same FCC decency regulations.
* May 12, 2004: Portland Modern Rock station [[KNRK]]'s morning show ''The Marconi Show'' played an audio clip from the beheading of [[Nick Berg]] on repeat, adding their snide commentary to it. After the station was flooded with angry phone calls and emails from listeners, KNRK General Manager Mark Hamilton apologised and fired both hosts of the show and their producer, asking listeners to call or write in with their suggestions on how to shape the station for the future. The result was the elimination of shock jocks and most of the hard rock music that made up the station's playlist at the time.
* December 2004: The Federal Communications Commission proposed fines totaling $220,000 against [[Entercom Communications]] for alleged indecency violations during multiple broadcasts in April and May 2002 of the [[Johnny Dare]] Morning Show on [[KQRC-FM]] in Kansas City, Kansas. The FCC claimed that the material included repeated graphic and explicit sexual descriptions that were pandering, titillating or used to shock the audience. As justification for proposing the maximum fine, the Commission noted "the egregious nature of the violations and Entercom's history of prior indecent broadcasts." 
* 2006: [[J. R. Gach]] described, on-air, an employee at a restaurant he was patronizing who had suffered serious burns, which later escalated into a series of insults. The subject of Gach's discussion sued him over the comments, citing severe emotional distress and won a US$1,000,000 settlement in December 2007. The lawsuit effectively ended Gach's career; he never again hosted a radio show before his 2015 death.<ref>Gavin, Robert. [http://albarchive.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=6432590 Cruel words have a price – Times Union – Albany NY<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526063734/http://albarchive.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=6432590 |date=2012-05-26 }}</ref>
* April 2007: [[Don Imus]] is fired for referring to members of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."<ref name=Bauder>{{cite web|url=https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/imus-called-womens-basketball-team-nappy-headed-hos|title=Ryan Chiachere, "Imus called women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos""], Media Matters, April 7, 2007.|website=[[Media Matters for America]] |date=4 April 2007 }}</ref> Eight months later, another network hired Imus, who resumed the same format and would continue to host it until retiring in 2018; he died in 2019.
* March 2, 2012: [[Rush Limbaugh]], a politically conservative shock jock, was criticized and faced with an advertiser exodus after making [[Rush Limbaugh–Sandra Fluke controversy|comments]] toward activist [[Sandra Fluke]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Zielenziger|first=David|title=Limbaugh Boycott Draws Blood: Cumulus Media Cites 'Drag' In 2Q Revenue|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/374036/20120815/rush-limbaugh-boycott-romney-ryan-cumulus-premiere.htm|newspaper=International Business Times|date=August 15, 2012}}</ref> Limbaugh was not disciplined for the remarks and survived the controversy, with only two small stations (out of nearly 600) dropping the program in the immediate aftermath of the controversy. The controversy had a much longer impact on talk radio as a whole as advertisers became much more reluctant to have their advertising heard on politically charged programs that were subject to being targeted by pressure groups. Limbaugh died in February 2021, still hosting his program to the end.
* December 2013: Canadian radio shock jock [[Dean Blundell]] was indefinitely suspended from [[CFNY-FM]],<ref>"Radio show suspended after jokes about trial: Shock jocks had apologized for 'homophobic' remarks". ''[[Toronto Star]]'', December 2013.</ref> following reports that he and cohost Derek Welsman had discussed on the air a [[jury trial]] in which Welsman was the foreman.<ref name=foreman>"Jury foreman's jokes spark call for judicial review: Radio producer joins in mocking gays on broadcast after accused is convicted of sex assault of three men". ''[[Toronto Star]]'', December 8, 2013.</ref> The trial had concerned a [[sexual assault]] charge against a client of a [[gay bathhouse]],<ref name=foreman /> and Blundell and Welsman's commentary about it was criticized both for [[homophobia]] and for potentially causing a [[mistrial]] by publicly discussing the jury deliberations.<ref name=foreman /> The program's cancellation was announced in January 2014.<ref>"Corus axes Blundell radio show". ''[[National Post]]'', January 7, 2014.</ref>