LONDON - Ofcom has fined Emap's Kiss FM �175,000, the largest fine for a commercial radio station to date, as a punishment for offensive broadcasts on its 'Bam Bam Breakfast Show' and a prank call that victimised a man who believed the DJ's sidekick was his human resources officer.
Ofcom's report on the case includes an admission from Emap that it terminated Bam Bam's contract as a result of his behaviour. The DJ left the station in April without his former employer revealing the circumstances of his departure.
The prank call, broadcast last July without the caller's consent, was described by Ofcom as "the most serious case of unwarranted infringement of privacy it had heard" and Emap executives admitted it was a "horrible" and "degrading" intrusion.
Bam Bam's sidekick Streetboy, who frequently conducted hoaxes on the show, posed as the human resources officer of the victim, a Mr R, who later complained about his treatment.
Mr R, who had been recently made redundant, had mistakenly left a message on Streetboy's voicemail for his human resources officer hoping to find a job elsewhere in the company.
Streetboy called Mr R to tell him "you are not really what we are looking for... you're wasting my time to be frank" then went on to ask him to "sell yourself to me". Despite the man being clearly distressed, he was told he should "go and flip burgers".
The call was not live and Ofcom was highly critical of the separate "incomprehensible" decision to broadcast it on the show and the "inexcusable" decision to broadcast it without Mr R's consent.
Kiss was fined �75,000 for the call and another �100,000 fine for eight instances of standards breaches on the breakfast show between April and November last year. Swearing and discussions of hardcore pornography and group sex were inappropriately broadcast at a time when children were likely to be listening.