Format Jewish | First air date 28 October 2007 Website None | |
Frequency 101.4FM (28 October 2007 - 23 November 2007) Jcomradio.net (24 November 2007 – 31 August 2008) Owner Jewish Communications Limited] | ||
Jcom Radio was a London internet-based radio station owned by Jewish Communications Limited.
Contents
History
Jcom Radio was formed by a group of people whose background is in radio and was founded by six men who met through another Jewish radio station - Shalom FM (now defunct). They were Steve Newton, Jeremy Silverstone, Tony Honickberg, Mike Peters, Ronny Munster and Phil Dave.
Jewish Communications Limited was formed in March 2007. Endless weeks of planning and organizing went into the launch of Jcom Radio. It finally hit the airwaves on 28 November 2007 as an RSL (Restricted Service Licence). The RSL ran for 4 weeks, broadcasting every Sunday to Thursday 7am - 2am, Friday 7am - 3pm and Saturday 6pm - 2am. Listening figures reached over 100,000. It ceased broadcasting on 101.4FM on 23 November 2007, continuing as an Internet Radio station, every Sunday to Thursday 6pm - 11pm.
Closure
Jcom Radio was forced to cease broadcasting on 12 August 2008 when it lost a High Court libel case brought by George Galloway, then MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. The case concerned a broadcast in November 2007, in which a character playing "Georgie Galloway", the station's "Middle East correspondent" cried out "Kill the Jews, Kill the Jews". The station issued an apology and offered the MP the opportunity to speak on the station.
In the High Court. Galloway was awarded £15,000 and about £5,000 in costs. He explained that the station's apology "fell short of the categorical retraction of the imputation of anti-Semitism that I insisted upon".