Jewish radio debuts, chap

LONDON, Jan. 7 (JTA) — A Jewish radio station has hit London´s airwaves. Shalom FM went live Sunday after being granted a one-month license from Britain´s Radio Authority. The radio station is airing news, music, religious content, interviews and listener call-in shows. "Since the events of Sept. 11 and the current problems in the Middle East, it is even more important that the Jewish community makes its views known," said the station´s founder, Richard Ford. From 7 a.m. to midnight, the station offers locally produced programming. From midnight to 7 a.m., it broadcasts Israeli radio. The station will not broadcast on Shabbat. From Friday afternoon to Saturday night, it will hand over the airwaves to a University College of London radio station to ensure that pirate stations don´t take over the frequency. Shalom FM´s license is a restricted service license, which runs out in a month. Stuart Brodkin, the station´s news editor and a former editor of the weekly London Jewish News, says this is because there are few wavelengths free. He said the license was granted, at least in part, because of sponsoring by the Jewish National Fund, which will hold its a fund-raising drive on the air later this month. Brodkin says Shalom FM will consider asking for another one-month restricted service license either in six months or for Rosh Hashanah. For now, at least, Brodkin says, the station is not interested in applying for a permanent license. The station broadcasts local Jewish news provided by LJN every two hours. It also gets a direct hourly feed of national and international news. Brodkin says the station is targeting listeners of all ages and religious streams, and estimates a potential radio audience of 100,000 listeners — not all Jewish — in a radius of about 15 miles covering mainly northwest London. "We´re offering a complete range of stuff — a breakfast show for younger people, a drive-time show, a women´s program, a dating program," he says. There is a hour of cantorial music, but the music is not exclusively Jewish. The station also features a jazz program, as well as rock, klezmer, Israeli music and international pop favorites. Brodkin says the station has received sponsoring from Reform and Lubavitch Jewish groups, as well as from local advertisers. "We´ve managed to sell almost enough" advertising "to make it work — it´s an expensive operation," Brodkin said. For more information about the station, visit http://shalomfm.com/