THAMES Valley FM has had its knuckles rapped by radio watchdogs after it played a record containing a swear word on a Sunday afternoon show.

The BBC station was ticked off by the Broadcast Complaints Commission after DJ John Hutson aired the song, called The Cape Man, by American singer Paul Simon, last year.

It contained a swear word and the commission upheld a complaint after it was alerted by a letter from listener Ruth Jolly, 43, of Adelaide Street, Oxford. Miss Jolly, who said Mr Hutson's show is the only one she listens to, said she was annoyed at the way he appeared to be unconcerned at his mistake.

She said: "I'm not a prude but when he played the record I thought it was very unprofessional. All he said before was 'this might contain a swear word'.

"He played it in full and afterwards said 'I'm sorry, I didn't listen to that one as carefully as I should have' and just got on with it." "I wrote a letter because I thought, he thinks he can get away with doing something like that when he shouldn't be allowed to."It's bad management. If he was on a commercial station he would be taken off the air straight away."

A report published by the commission said: "A standards panel listened to the programme, noting the song in question. It considered that the language, which was rated as strong according to the commission's own research, had exceeded acceptable boundaries. The complaint was upheld."

A spokesman for BBC local radio in the South-East, Kevan McClair, said: "Mr Hutson admitted he had not listened to the record attentively enough and so he apologised immediately afterwards and moved on swiftly.

"The BBC accepts that it was out of place in this show but that it had not intended to cause deliberate offence.

"This is something we take very seriously."

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