JOY caught in electoral accusations

JOY caught in electoral accusations

Melbourne’s gay and lesbian radio station JOY 94.9 FM has been accused of bias in its coverage of the Melbourne City Council mayoral election.

Deputy Lord Mayoral candidate Tim Wilson said he feels the station has -œblocked his attempts to be on air during the campaign -” a situation other candidates have not been subjected to.

The claims have been rejected by JOY FM management who state all candidates have been given equal air time.

Southern Star has been sent correspondence from a volunteer who claims Lord Mayoral aspirant Cr Gary Singer has been given a -œfree ride in his bid to become mayor and said unfettered coverage of Singer is -œembarrassing.

The complaints were levelled after Singer retained his weekly Melbourne city update spot on the Monday morning news program. No other candidate -” gay or straight -” has received this level of access to listeners.

Wilson said other candidates should be given a fair go and felt -œdisappointed that others in the race had not been subjected to the same process he had in ensuring he didn’t use the station as a political pulpit.

-œI was explicitly told not to talk about my candidature unless invited to do so … whereas Gary has been allowed to speak openly about his policy platform, he told Southern Star.

-œIf there is a bias I’m very disappointed in the station and considering they take public money, this amounts to gross misconduct.

Wilson has been a regular commentator and guest on the Tuesday news and current affairs commentary program, The Spin.

Station management raised concerns some weeks ago that Wilson was not a trained volunteer and said he must undergo training as part of station policy if he were to provide commentary on a continued basis.

-œI am not happy with the station and whether the rule to take me off air is a coincidence or up to a few individuals, I can’t say, Wilson said.

-œI have been an active voice in the community and have not been shy in bringing the outside community in … so I’m a bit perplexed if I have been blocked.

JOY FM station manager Stephen Hahn strongly rejected claims the station had been biased during the mayoral campaign and said the station does not endorse any council leadership team and has given ample opportunity to all candidates.

-œJOY does not have a political bias but does acknowledge the support we have received from Gary Singer over the past eight years, he said.

He said the station had so far given air time to four of the 11 candidates and said because JOY was a community station it was up to candidates to chase the station, not the other way around. -œWe simply don’t have the resources.

Hahn also said the station has not made a request for regular guests to cease on-air involvement due to the elections.

Gary Singer’s Melbourne round-up on Mondays has now ceased for the election period.

Inspired by JOY FM
A Northern UK GLBTI radio station inspired by Melbourne’s JOY FM 94.9 has been granted its first full time license.

Gaydio 97.7 in Manchester was established two years ago after the founders took a trip Down Under and were so impressed with JOY they decided to transplant the idea to their homeland.

The first song ever played on Gaydio was Music by Madonna, the station having its first two-week broadcast during Manchester Pride in the summer of 2006.

Gaydio program controller Toby Whitehouse and project manager Ian Wallace said they were delighted with the full time license and were looking forward to getting the station running.

-œI originally came up with the idea when I visited Melbourne back in 2004 and heard JOY on air -” we though this was something that could work well in Manchester, so decided to give it a go. Wallace told Southern Star.

-œWe know some of the guys at JOY and some of our team have also done some -˜news from the UK’ links into their programs.

Gaydio will produce programs of local content, music and entertainment.

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4 responses to “JOY caught in electoral accusations”

  1. DONT VOTE FOR THIS MAN!

    I googled IPA because it’s in the picture behind Tim Wilson – it turns out he works for them – they’ve got a habit of attacking not for profit groups – this is a great quote – made me laugh –

  2. Just another thought – it this guy is linked to the mob that used Google to get the results they wanted maybe they sent the email in the first place?

  3. Isn’t this Tim Wilson linked to the McMullin campaign and didn’t The Age expose them yesterday for buying google results and spending $650,000 on the campaign.

    Maybe the should have just spent some of the $650,000 on announcements on the station. That would have shown true support of the gay community. This looks like trying to drum up a storm in a tea cup

  4. It seems that Tim Wilson has sour grapes towards JOY. But his argument doesn’t stand up. He’s been on air with JOY 94.9 more times than other candidates, Robert Doyle for example since the election started.
    The station has every right not to allow him more air time until he becomes a proper volunteer, as per station policy.

    I think Tim and Peter McMullin need to wake up to themselves and realise that all the muck racking against other candidates, the sneaky and underhanded techniques they used to buy votes and now the whingeing and whining from Tim about lack of air time, to feed his ego more than anything else, just proves they have absolutely nothing to offer the City of Melbourne.