A presenter at a Buckinghamshire hospital radio used ‘racially discriminatory language’ whilst live on air, an Ofcom investigation has revealed.
The watchdog received one complaint from listeners following a comment that was made on the Tuesday Night Request Show on April 18 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio.
A host was revealing the answer to the quiz question, ‘which songwriter, or songwriting team, has written the song Dynamite by Mud?’
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In response, the co-host made a racially offensive play on the name of one of the writers, Nicky Chinn.
The comment was made with around 35 minutes left of the programme.
Before the show ended, the co-host said ‘I hope I haven't offended anybody’, before the main presenter replied, ‘Hopefully not’.
The co-host then responded with, ‘Hope I have’ before laughing.
Following the incident, the presenter who made the comment was removed from all hosting duties until the investigation concluded.
He has since acknowledged what he said was ‘wrong’ but felt his comment ‘was not said with any malice.’
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However, Ofcom considered that this did not amount to an apology and was unlikely to have lessened the potential offence to listeners.
This was due to the presenter immediately commenting 'hope I have', which suggested they were ‘ undermining the potential mitigatory effect’ of his initial statement.
Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio has since confirmed that the host was being provided with additional training and guidance on ‘the required standards’ and that it is ‘ensuring that all our on-air teams fully understand the required standards’.
It said that this was an ongoing process, but that ‘additional effort’ was being put in since being notified of the complaint.
Buckinghamshire NHS Trust said: “As a Trust we do not tolerate discriminatory language of any kind and we were pleased that Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio took prompt action in response to this incident.”
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The hospital radio is run by volunteers and has been located in Stoke Mandeville since December 1978.
They have had numerous big faces attend the studio in that time, such as Brian Nash, Ken Bruce, and Tony Hadley.
To read the full Ofcom report, click here.
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