Pity they can’t apply the same rules to N Myrtle Beach architecture
Businesses in North Myrtle Beach may now have to be more cautious about the music they play if it’s perceived as vulgar, profane or just too loud.
North Myrtle Beach City Council on Monday passed final reading of an ordinance that attempts to regulate “vulgar,” “profane” and “obscene” music after a local Facebook group made music from Main Street’s Sky Bar their target du jour this summer.
“If you want to listen to vulgar music that’s certainly your choice,” said Mayor Marilyn Hatley. “It should be in a closed-in area and not in an outdoor area where children and families can understand every word and children are asking parents ‘what does that mean?’ And the parents can’t even sit and enjoy an ice cream cone with their children without hearing the vulgarity. It is a shame that we’ve had to do something like this.”
First Amendment scholars have panned the ordinance as unconstitutional, because it seeks to hold music with certain types of protected speech to a lower decibel threshold than amplified music without the targeted language.
The new ordinance makes it illegal for anyone to use sound equipment to broadcast sustained or repetitive noise into the public that rises above 80 decibels when measured from the property line between 7:01 a.m. and 10:59 p.m. From 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. the limit drops to 60 decibels. Those restrictions apply to all music being broadcast using sound equipment.
The new law takes a much harsher approach to music with subjectively-defined “vulgar” or “profane” language. In those cases, the city has all but banned the targeted language before 11 p.m. and severely restricts it after 11 p.m. From 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., the rules cap the sound level of music with the lewd language at 50 decibels when measured from the property line, and 30 decibels between 7:01 a.m. and 10:59 p.m.
