Melbourne Jewish community radio station Lion FM went off air this week after a year of broadcasting. The closure of the station’s FM transmissions has been portrayed in some reports as the regulator shutting down the station due to internal disputes, although an ACMA spokesperson has told radioinfo the story is much simpler than that. Lion FM 96.1 was operating on a temporary community broadcasting licence, which could only ever have been issued for a maximum duration of one year under the TCBL rules. The station has been subject to several significant internal disputes, but these were not a factor in the ACMA’s decision.

The ACMA decided not to grant any more community radio licences in Melbourne, and announced the decision this week saying: “Melbourne is a spectrum congested area with little likelihood of spectrum being made available for any additional long-term community broadcasting services.” 

The decision coincided with the expiration date (Monday 13 June) of Lion FM’s temporary licence, which was issued last year to Melbourne Jewish Radio Inc. The station was told to shut down its FM signal from that date.

NO MORE SPACE ON THE DIAL

ACMA recently reviewed the Melbourne Licence Area Plan to see if it could find more spectrum for aspirant broadcasters such as Lion FM, but found several reasons why no new permanent licences should be issued. Reasons include:

–      The 96.1 FM frequency in Melbourne is one of two frequencies used for short term ‘special event’ broadcasts, and the ACMA felt that restricting Melbourne to only one special event frequency would be a mistake in a city that size.

–      Melbourne already has more community radio licences than Sydney, but has a smaller population than Sydney.

–      The 96.1 transmissions were found to have interfered with several other nearby stations, evidenced by that fact that Lion was asked to restrict its transmissions to a directional pattern so as to protect stations to the south of the city.

Under the TCBL rules, Lion FM did not have the right to exclusive access to the 96.1 frequency. If another aspirant had asked ACMA for a test frequency, the station would have been required to share transmission time, as happens in other areas where there is more than one aspirant broadcasting group.

The ACMA believes Melbourne is already “well served” with community licences in a market where spectrum availability is scarce, and that the closure of the station has been misrepresented in some media reports.

The station was the only Jewish radio station on air in Australia and broadcast “Jewish and Israeli music, community programs, political discussions, interviews, religious and cultural programs, lifestyle and hobby shows, educational programs, kids, comedy, business and much more.”  Lion FM’s programs can still be heard on an internet stream (click the link at the bottom of this story).

STATION DISPUTES

Lion FM has not been immune from controversy in its time on air. Accusations of bullying and board divisions have spilled into the public arena several times during the station’s year of broadcasting.

In September last year a lawyer, Bram Presser, who also presented a weekly show on the station, wrote in the Jewish online newspaper Galus Australis  that the station “was being run in a somewhat questionable manner by people with no radio experience and a political agenda to push.”

His assertion was that the station had been hijacked by right wing interests, who were suppressing wide debate on controversial issues. He wrote:

“..the latest rounds of peace talks between Netanyahu and Abbas had just wrapped up. It was only natural that we would discuss the Middle East Peace Process, especially given that we are a Jewish station. Failure to mention it would be ignoring the elephant in the room. We voiced the opinion – hardly a radical one nowadays – that we supported a Palestinian State standing proudly alongside a secure, safe Israel. Although I had been assured by Michael Lipshutz that the executive was not interested in censoring legitimate debate, there is no question what happened next. We were taken off air because the opinion we voiced was deemed contrary to the “pro-Zionist” constitution. I have since been accused of hating Israel and rallying against Lion FM’s constitution.”

The station disputed this version of events, saying the show was taken off air because Presser and his co-presenter had not signed the Volunteer’s Agreement. Presser contested that view saying, “the problem with that argument is that, in fact, Adam had signed a new Presenter’s Agreement… on our behalf. Granted it was with a cover note saying he was signing under duress and that, in principle, he was against having to sign something of this sort. I was given a reprieve from signing because I am overseas – ironically, in Israel – and was told I could do a similar thing upon my return. Adam’s signature was deemed to be enough for both of us…”

On the same web page as Presser’s Galus report, a message from Lion FM Vice President Menachem Khoen responded saying:

“I want to clarify that Lion FM will be broadcast according to Halacha and from its inception, it was decided that it will only be broadcast according to Jewish Law. We will be doing everything in accordance with our orthodox Rabbi’s approval.

If anyone wanted to hear the full story, they could have come to our publicly advertised meeting on Thursday night where these issues were discussed.” 

Some time after those accusations became public, station president Michael Lipshutz resigned his position amid rumours of rifts with fellow board members over the way the station was being run. These were first raised publicly in the Presser article.

As recently as March this year, another station president, John Kraus, also stepped down, shortly after a court action was launched by other members of the executive “in a bid to prevent a special general meeting being held about the future of the station,” according to The Australian Jewish News.

Since the station closed, Jewish news services have reported that other groups intend to present a united front in the hope of one day being able to contest for a new licence. J-Wire reported yesterday:

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria’s President, John Searle said “the loss of the licence is very unfortunate”. He added: “It is devastating news for our community for whom the benefits of the licence were enormous. It provided not only a means of communication within our community but also a wonderful window through which information could flow to the wider community”…Searle went on to say that “the JCCV is aware that at least two other groups had been formed (in addition to “Lion FM”), each with a view to either applying for the community broadcasting licence or being involved in community broadcasting. It would appear that the “fight for the licence” might have been a contributing factor in the ACMA decision, as clearly, ACMA did not see a unified community”.

A new group, JBC  (Jewish Broadcasting for the Community) has now been formed under the chairmanship of Dr Paul Gardner, a former head of the Anti-Defamation Commission. Gardner told J-Wire:

“We are well aware that ACMA has told The Jewish Community Council of Victoria that they would not continue Lion’s licence as there are too many community stations. But our organisation has been established to allow for a much broader take on community life allowing for diverse interests from diverse groups.”

The ACMA disagrees with the view that the “fight for the licence” was a contributing factor in Lion FM closing, and, based on its decision that no new spectrum is available, any new group is unlikely to find a new FM frequency in Melbourne any time soon.