Kentucky Radio Station Plays ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ On Repeat For Two Hours


While radio stations across the country are making the decision to pull all renditions of Frank Loesser’s 1944 composition “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from their holiday music playlists, WAKY-FM in Louisville, Kentucky, decided to make a statement with it. The station played the often-covered holiday classic for two hours straight on Sunday morning, making it clear that they support the tune.

The station, which broadcasts on 103.5 and 100.1 FM, played five different versions of the song, including the original, on repeat from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., according to WSB-TV.

“Everyone just seems so sensitive to the lyrics of the song, and we just thought everybody should calm down,” said Chris Randolph, one of the station’s disk jockeys, when they made the promise last week to run the marathon. “These stations pulling the song, it’s absolutely ludicrous.”

Randolph added that his station attracts listeners who don’t take things too seriously, as the station doesn’t either.

“It’s all just out of fun,” he said.

The song was banned from many radio stations when complaints started rolling in that the song was too inappropriate to play in 2018 amidst the #MeToo movement. Listeners have cited the song’s lyrics as disregarding the issue of consent.

The call-and-response tune features a male and a female voice. As the couple finishes up a date night in the man’s home, the woman insists she should be heading home, but the man tries to lure her to stay, according to Fox 8.

Some of the questionable lyrics include the woman singing “Say, what’s in this drink?” and “I simply must go… the answer is no.”

Joe Fredele, director of programming for WAKY, said that he doesn’t believe the song is controversial, citing the fact that it was written in a different time, almost 70 years ago, when the song’s dialogue had different meaning.

“This song is not about that. All it is, is a dialogue between a man and a woman, and at the end of the song, you hear them harmonize together, so they’re agreeing basically,” said Fredele, who then added that he is an avid supporter of the #MeToo movement.

Another station is Louisville, WVEZ-FM, known as “Louisville’s Original Christmas Music Station,” also refused to pull the song from the rotation. The station plays four different versions of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” during the holiday season, USA Today reported.

Lee Cagle, operations manager of SummitMedia Louisville, which owns WVEZ, said that they have never received a complaint about the song.

“I personally think people are looking for things to be offended by,” Cagle said.

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