This web survey has been largely superseded by the following:
- www.TheHistoryOfNow.net/JewishRadioNow.htm
- Jewish Radio World wide
- www.TheHistoryOfNow.net/JewishRadioAustraliaNow.htm
- The Story of Melbourne Jewish Radio - Lion FM
In the period 1947 onwards -- some ultra-British nationalists in Australia (including some Jews) saw the emerging Jewish state -- which was so vigorously opposed by the British PM of the day -- as anti-British. In fact the popular weekly paper Smith's Weekly in 1947 falsely accused Australian Jewry of sending funds collected for the Jewish rescue organization, Youth Aliyah, to aid the campaign against the British in Palestine. An attempt by community leader Dr Fanny Reading to sue Smith's Weekly for libel failed, as group libel was outside the gamut of defamation. Even the stories in leading newspapers stories of the last days of the Mandate invariably reproduced without question the British official perspective. Thus many community members felt most uncomfortable, and agitation arose for establishing an AM radio Station in Sydney, broadcasting from a Jewish perspective. Leading Rabbi Dr Israel Porush, of the Great Synagogue, who was born in Jerusalem was involved with the organising committee. However,in the years immediately following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and with increasing knowledge of the holocaust, the attitude of leading newspapers became more sympathetic towards the Jewish homeland and to local Jewish support. In this situation -- of less compelling need in the very small community of that era -- the project ultimately founded (in 1951).
The Whitlam Governemnt was the first federal government to appoint a Minister for Immigration, and when that Minister (Al Grassby) lost office, appointed him as the first Commissioner for Community Relations, this move coincided with governement funding of community radio stations and of SBS Television.
Once these opportunities existed, the need of the Jewish community for community-specific radio was met by up to two hours weekly on 3EA (Melbourne) and in recent years by up to three hours weekly on 3ZZZ (Ethnic Public Radio - Melbourne).These programs have included as much as half an hour weekly in Ivrit (Hebrew) and Yiddish. A similar story of token catering to community needs applies in Sydney. There has been no such broadcasting in other state capitals, or Canberra. There has been no broadcasting in Russian aimed at the Russian-Jewish community.
Within mainstream broadcasting, there has been quite regular presentations of klezmer music on ABC, both by overseas and Melbourne groups. The Punk Rock Jewish group Yidcore, a Melbourne based group that has toured Israel and the US, has broadcast on rather few occasions.
To the left is an image of broadcaster Dulcie Kanoptosky
with programme co-ordinator and broadcaster Uri Palti in 3EA (Melbourne) studios.
Dulcie Kanatopsky reported
in the Australia and New Zealand Jewish Year Book for 1985
that
Jewish Broadcasting takes off".
In this
article
Kanatopsy detailed with enthusiasm the four hours per week of Jewish radio then available. She also
expressed the hope, based on the Jewish programs success and the community size that when rescheduling occured,
more time would be allocated to the Jewish Community,
"especially for English language broadcasts". She also reported that "the news policy of SBS requires
that all news broadcast by SBS radio stations shall be accurate, impartial and responsible."
In fact more air-time was never allocated, and news reportage on SBS radio and television re the Middle East
has been notable for its heavy anti-Israel slant.(See the next section).
In the early 80's, an outstanding broadcaster of local and world Jewish news was Rabbi John Levy. Rabbi Levi broadcast his half-hour segment in English, initially on 3ZZZ and subsequently on 3EA at the popular time of 10am every Sunday.
In this era -- long before the internet -- access to international news was very difficult. Rabbi Levy gathered the latest news from Israel by listening to Kol Israel on Short Wave in the early hours of Sunday. In the second part of his half-hour he would play Kol Israe tapes sent by air (!) with date information like "yesterday" removed.
Because of his popularity within the community station management decided to terminate his role. Although he broadcast in English, he was required to take a test in oral Ivrit - and although roughly able he failed this test. The gross dishonesty of station management is at once apparent when one notes that speakers in the 3EA Irish program were not tested in Gaelic, and speakers on aboriginal programs were never tested for fluency in any aboriginal languages.
More recently there was the case of the popular Yehuda Kaplan in charge of Hebrew (Ivrit) broadcasting on SBS. During the recent Lebanon war he was declared biased towards Israel because of his accurate reportage, and dismissed from SBS.
In early 2009 Melbourne Jewish Radio Inc was establised to set about the task of developing a Melbourne Jewish Radio Station. Following multiple applications, on January 6, 2010, the Australian Communications and Media Authority allocated radio spectrum sought. What had been granted to Melbourne Jewish Radio was a 12 month Temporary Community Broadcasting Licence on 96.1 MHz, to commence in the first half of 2010. Permission was granted to broadcast from a central CBD location, with the proviso that radiation output had to be limited in the direction of Geelong, where Geelong Community Radio broadcasts at 96.3 FM.
Starting at the beginning of 2010 there were a series of meetings at private homes gathering in volunteers of all kinds to run the station. Here is a pix taken at one such meeting:
Transmission tower
includes Lion FM antenna
viewed from skylight in the transmission room.
Start-up Lion FM team plus the station logo March 2010.
Excellent transmission facilities were found with the shared use of the top level transmission room and broadcasting tower on a 54 storey building in the Melbourne CBD. The actual transmitter rack was designed, configured, and assembled by a volunteer.
View over Docklands from the transmission room atop a 54 story CBD building. |
(Then) Station Co-Manager Amit Rehak selects twiddles Lion FM dials within the transmission room. |
Street Talk Outside Glicks Opinions on the need for a Jewish Radio Station in Melbourne are gathered in Carlisle Street -- the heart of Melbourne's Bagel Belt. A chirpy 5 minute video promo for Lion FM produced by a volunteer in early 2010, worth viewing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qli3LdxrC4U |
www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_51557441580
Lion FM commenced broadcasting on FM at 96.1 Mhz on July 11, 2010, after 4 weeks of test transmission. Internet broadcasting from a tab in the station's website www.lionfm.org commenced on September 1, 2010.
Initial broadcasting was totally the replay of studio or home generated MP3 files, which were physicaly brought to the transmission room on memory sticks. However by December direct broadcasting from the Lion FM studio commenced. One highlight of the early period was Lion FM's first outdoor broadcast, in December 2010.
The Lion FM caravan studio at Chanuka in the Park, Caulfield Park, 2010.
Over the end of year break the initial studio was improved and a second studio was fully equipped.
Studio 1 circa March 2011.
A range of programs were developed by the volunteer workers. Notable were the following.
| Program | Podcasting URL | Notes |
| The Luv Shack | www.theluvshack.net | Jewish dating program
for 25-35 year olds Relationship advice. Interviews. Shared experience. Phone-ins. News of singles events | Mornings with Lion | Mornings with Lion | Weekday Morning Show Weekdays 8-9 am Witty repartee. News. Israeli and English songs. Community announcements. |
| The World and Us | www.theroar.info |
Jewish & ME history 1900+ Analysis of news events and media reporting, with topical interviews |
| Neshima Mizrahi נשמה מזרחית Sephardic Soul |
The only Sephardic cultural program on Australian radio.
In Hebrew |
התוכנית היחידה באוסטרליה הנותנת במה למוזיקה ים תיכונית מזרחית והתרבות הספרדית
Hosted by Lea Katanov |
| Gevolt |
For Jews from Russia
where since 1917 Jewish culture was restriced and banned. | Russian language program
bridging cultural gap between newcomers and the community including Torah knowledge |
| Artytypes
hosted by Nita Jaye | www.artytypes.com.au | Interviews and profiles of people in the Arts. Weekly short story. |
As detailed above Lion FM was allocated a temporary license to broadcast at 96.1 Mhz in a special niche of the overcrowded radio spectrum in Melbourne. During the temporary license period complaints were received by ACMA about interference with reception to close frequency FM stations ( 3GDR 95.7 FM, 3GGR at 96.5 FM ) In response Lion FM was required to substantially reduce its broadcasting power. However broadcast reception in the suburbs of major Jewish concentration (known as Melbourne's Borsch, Bagel, and Veldt Belts) remained acceptable on better quality receivers with digital tuning.
Lion FM had been criticised during the first half of 2011 for not being sufficiently embracing of the entire community as is arguably a necessary requirement of community radio stations. It is interesting to note that similar criticism was levelled at the Sydney Muslim radio station, 2MFM during 2010-11. In that case senior Muslim community leaders wrote to ACMA complaining that 2MFM promoted fringe sectarian views. The ACMA took these criticisms on board to impose operating conditions on 2MFM to ensure it did reflect the ethnic diversity in its broadcast area and could no longer be categorized as fringe. This ACMA ruling was announced on May 19, 2011 . Of course with close on 1000 members in its Facebook Group, a significant range of presenters and volunteers it would not be easy to characterise Lion FM station as "fringe". So Lion FM insiders anticipated an extension of the temporary license possibly with special conditions. However, on June 10, ACMA announced that there would be no new spectrum for temporary Community Radio licenses in the Melbourne City area. , meaning that when the initial temporary license for Lion FM expired three days later it would be renewed.
Key phrase on the ACMA announcement was that The Australian Communications and Media Authority has decided not to make additional radiofrequency spectrum in the Melbourne City licence area available to temporary community broadcasting licensees.
Listeners and presenters were stunned at the announcement. The was much flaring on the Lion FM Facebook Page. But key figures proclaimed that all was not lost and that the station might yet be revived as a radio broadcasting station. Final night of broadcasting-- Monday June 13 -- the station closed at midnight with the playing of the Hatikvah, whose opening lines are in English Our Hope is not yet lost.
One week after the cessation of FM broadcasting, station manager Gil Barazny sent this email to "Volunteers, Members and Listeners" on the station's mailing list which included the following:
Ceasing the broadcasting caused a lot of unhappiness within the community. We knew that people loved the station, but only after stopping the broadcast we realised how much. We received countless phone calls, emails and Facebook posts from people who felt angry, sad and upset about what had happened. The reactions came from all sections of the community - Israelis, Australians, Orthodox, "Masorti" and secular. We even got responses from people who said that they are not Jewish but they love the station.
Ending the broadcasting now happened at a time when the station was active, vibrant and creative. The grid was filling with shows, more shows were under development and the place was full with volunteers. In the station we saw a real "Kibutz Galuyot" and unity of our community. People working together on shows - secular with religious, young with old together. The station became part of the Jewish life in Melbourne and we had live broadcasts from different events such as Chanukah, Purim, Yom Ha'atzmaut and Yom Hazikaron
