Starting on Sunday, what gets played on a new two-hour, weekly program on American Forces Network radio in Germany, Italy and Belgium will be up for popular vote.
AFN Europe debuts "Eagle 20" on Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m., billing it as "the show you control."
That’s somewhat true.
Each week, 29 songs will be listed on the AFN Europe Web site. Listeners vote on five and the top 20 get airtime on Sunday’s countdown show hosted by AFN volunteer disc jockey Beth Monk, based in Vicenza, Italy.
The weekly song ballot will include popular music from a mix of genres that’s already being played on AFN, said AFN Europe operations manager George Smith.
But that means the songs must also be "family-friendly," he said.
The litmus test is mostly subjective: "Family-friendly" songs are those that "a mother in a car with a child or in the commissary would not be embarrassed" to hear, Smith said.
AFN Europe has a designated "Eagle Eyes" team led by Demarrio Spence of AFN Kaiserslautern in Germany and Grant Peters of AFN Vicenza. They vet songs for explicit lyrics and strong sexual innuendo.
One tune that didn’t make the cut, for example, for "heavy sexual innuendo" was "Lollipop" by Lil’ Wayne, Spence said.
The 29 artists and their songs up for voting this week on AFN Europe’s Web site include Miley Cyrus, David Cook, Soulja Boy, Black Eyed Peas, U2, Flo Rida and Shinedown.
To vote, go to afneurope.net and click on the "Eagle 20" logo on the right.