Aug. 7, 2009
Q: I recently visited the Yokosuka Bowling Center to watch my daughter and help with the other children during the weekly trip they take while attending summer camp. At 2:30 p.m., while the group of young children were bowling, the music being played was extremely vulgar and adult themed. I went up to the desk to have the music turned off and speak to the manager on duty. His reason for the music was that they use satellite radio and it just changes themes. Being a past satellite radio subscriber, I know that this is not true. I have spoken to several of the staff from the summer camp and they stated that the music has been a problem on several occasions. My daughter is 6, and I will now be visiting the bowling center every time her camp arrives to ensure that she is not exposed to inappropriate music.

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A: Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. We do our best to cater to a diverse customer base which includes Sailors, their families, civilian employees, retirees and occasionally their Japanese guests. With such a diverse base, we also try to keep the music diverse – appropriate for a family environment, but diverse nonetheless. We receive many requests for a variety of genres of music and we do our best to accommodate those requests while still maintaining an environment suitable for families with children. You did the right thing in approaching the manager and asking him to change the station/ song you found offensive. It is our understanding that the station was changed immediately per your request. The manager also talked with Camp Adventure staff asking for their help in reporting anything like this immediately in the future, so I can assure you that he did take this seriously. As a means of avoiding situations just like this, we regularly review stations for content and have an approved list by the front desk. We have asked the manager to review and update the approved stations list on a regular basis. Even with these steps in place there always remains the very rare possibility where something played might be found objectionable. We apologize in advance and ask that any customer aware of this bring it to our attention immediately. Our goal is to provide an environment that is comfortable and appropriate for all. This is the first complaint of this variety that we have received during the summer camp program. We talked with most of the counselors in both camps (Camp Adventure and the Youth Sports Camp) as well as some of the MWR staff that have been on these trips and none recalled another occasion where inappropriate music was played in the bowling center. Hopefully this incident appears to have been isolated and is being handled to avoid future occurrences. If your feel the need for further information, contact the Bowling Center Manager Ken Rogers at 243- 5158/4200.

Why do they ever play any vulgar and adult themed music? There's so much great music out there that they really don't need a non-family approriate music to played during adult hours.

Along the same line, how about the base radio stations? I'm in Iwakuni, but I suspect it's the same all around... hip hop, rap and other genre of music glorifying both drug abuse and misogyny. Immediately followed by some public service announcement decrying drug abuse & sexual harassment. So how exactly do those types of lyrics uphold our core values?

YeA!!!!! Why dont they ever play metal?!?!?! YEAAA!!! Come on lolz. these guys know what time people are going to be bringing their families be real should have changed the station a long time ago so you dont have to hear the complaining mom's dummy lol.
They should do like club a and have music theme nights and days, times when music glorifying B's and Hos can be played and put it out there so people know when not to bring their kids.
With that said all you conservative wusses out there need to respect the times posted and if you dont want your kids exposed to it dont take them during those times, NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO LISTEN TO FREAKIN JUSTIN BIEBER or Disney greatest hits!!!
I bet they dont say anything when Lady Gaga is on, listen to what she is saying, she is saying THE SAME THING!!!

Thai I understand pimpin, I'm taking a History class right now and i must say times are changing. The rest of the world doesnt worry about sex like we do, they care about not getting blown up and education...We have let religion make us prudes to the things that come natural to our species. Then again if all we have to worry about is seeing boobs on TV i think we are headed in the right direction huh?