"I kissed a girl and I liked it / the taste of her cherry ChapStick / I kissed a girl just to try it / I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it."

The lyrics to Katy Perry’s "I Kissed a Girl" can be heard on American Forces Network radio stations across Pacific bases. And for some, the lesbian reference is offensive.

"Every three to four months, a new song pops up that is popular in the States that we will play [and it] will offend certain people," said Gunnery Sgt. Jimmy Stare, acting station manager for AFN Okinawa.

Sometimes it’s parents complaining about songs with sexual innuendo or curse words, Stare said. Other times, he said, people simply say a particular song isn’t appropriate for a military radio station.

For others, it’s not a particular song, just the general music selection.

That’s why Air Force Staff Sgt. Samantha Smothers listens to CDs instead of the Wave, AFN Okinawa’s radio station. "Mostly it plays just a lot of music that I don’t listen to," said Smothers, who prefers hard rock.

In some locations, complaints are few and far between.

Using the music provided by the American Forces Radio and Television Service, AFN Korea has not received a complaint about music in more than a year, said AFN Korea commander Lt. Col. Michael T. Lawhorn.

Public complaints about inappropriate music are rare at Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, too, said Staff Sgt. Dustin Dunk, radio programming director at the base AFN station.

When complaints do roll in, Dunk and Stare said, they explain their station’s policy and how AFN affiliates acquire music from AFRTS (see related story).

AFN’s mission is to inform and entertain, Stare said. The way to reach its target audience of 18- to 24-year-old servicemembers is through current music that’s hot on the charts, he said.

And once music has been approved by AFRTS, it isn’t his policy to censor that music, Stare said, explaining why the Katy Perry song continues to run on his station.

"If I censored that song, then I would have to censor many other songs," Stare explained in a written response to complaints about the song. "For example, Little Wayne’s hit ‘Lollipop’ is a thinly veiled reference to oral sex. Mariah Carey’s last hit ‘Touch my Body’ was extremely blatant in its content. The Rolling Stones classic hit ‘Brown Sugar’ references slavery."

But not all AFN stations follow that way of thinking.

AFN Misawa in northern Japan has removed some songs from its rotation that its audience found objectionable, Petty Officer 1st Class James Stilipec said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. Examples include "Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)" by Three 6 Mafia and "Get Like Me" by David Banner, Stilipec said.

"That being said, some of our music might still upset or offend listeners, but that can be said for all music," Stilipec said. "If we tried to satisfy absolutely everyone’s listening tastes, we wouldn’t be able to play anything at all."

At Sasebo, DJs play new music picks from the Power Gold system, a computerized music library and automated player used by AFN, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Frank "Gravy Train" Gravinese, the AFN detachment’s music broadcast director.

Some of the songs that are uploaded onto the Power Gold system come with a "lyrics alert," meaning they could be offensive. When that happens, his station’s policy is to not play them, Gravinese said.

The station still receives some complaints, though none lately, he said. About four songs without Power Gold lyric alerts have been banned by the station, he said, because some listeners consider them offensive.

"If a person brings up a legitimate concern, I can get my supervisor, and we can determine whether we will play it or not," Gravinese said. "We’ve got a lot of kids who listen … we try not put out stuff that could be offensive."

AFN radio stations "have more stringent rules about what we play than most stateside radio stations," said Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Brogan, AFN Tokyo’s operations manager, adding that they receive very few complaints about songs played on Eagle 810, the Kanto area AFN station.

Chances are, though, if it’s popular in the States, then listeners probably will hear it on AFN, Stare said.

Even if he removed songs such as "I Kissed a Girl" from his DJs’ playlists, the audience would still hear them when the station switched from live broadcasts to its satellite feed, because that’s what is being played in the States, he said.

Mindy Smith, 21, an Army spouse on Okinawa, said she has no complaints with the Katy Perry song.

While she and her husband, Army Sgt. Wesley Smith, 23, don’t like every song that plays on AFN Okinawa, they said the radio station does a pretty good job.

"They do the best they can … to provide a variety of music for everybody," the sergeant said.

No matter what they play, Stare said, the potential is there to offend someone.

"We can’t please everybody."

Stars and Stripes reporters Bryce Dubee, Jennifer Svan and Travis Trittencontributed to this story.

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