Coastal Radio in Blackpool found in breach for sweary song lyrics

Ofcom has investigated a radio station in Blackpool for playing a song with a swear word in it.

Coastal Radio DAB played a version of “drivers licence” by Olivia Rodrigo, broadcast at around 13:20 on 13th August 2023.

The track contained two uses of the word “fu**ing”.

One person complained about the song, leading to Ofcom finding the station in breach of the broadcasting code.

Ironically, the presenters made reference to this particular programme being “a family show”, the need for “keeping it clean”, and the need for the use of radio edits of songs to avoid the broadcast of “naughty words”.

The station said that “the presenter had two versions of the same song, one for broadcast and one not”. It added that, in this case, the presenter had loaded the wrong version by error.

Coastal Radio apologised to Ofcom and said it had “put measures in place to ensure this will not happen again”.