Kiss FM Gets Record Fine For ‘Offensive And Intrusive’ Behaviour

Kiss FM, Emap’s Urban commercial radio station, has been fined a record £175,000 by Ofcom after the communications regulator upheld complaints about offensive and intrusive behaviour.

The ten complaints, lodged at various points over 2005, concerned the scheduling of inappropriate material such as offensive language and sexual content, and ‘prank-calls’ where the ‘victim’ had not consented to being contacted.

The breaches of Ofcom’s codes were believed by the body to be “serious and repeated”, resulting in the largest ever imposed fine on a commercial radio station.

Emap Radio agreed with complaints regarding the prank calls, telling the committee at the hearing that the call was a “terrible intrusion into someone’s privacy and degrading someone in public… it was also extremely bad for the radio station.”

Emap Radio went on to say that the decision to broadcast the pre-recorded segment was “inexplicable”. With regards to the inappropriate sexual references on Kiss 100FM, Emap Radio said its procedures were not “up to spec” at the time of the complaints and admitted it could not defend some of the material that had been broadcast.

The fine will be a huge blow for Emap Radio, with the commercial radio sector already suffering a bad year financially and Kiss FM in particular seeing a drop in listeners year on year (see Magic Steps Up To Take London Top Spot).

Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk