The UK broadcasting regulator has found that Belfast LGBTQ+ radio station Juice does not broadcast enough programmes dedicated to the queer community in what has been described as a “truly baffling” ruling.

Juice Radio is a station based in Belfast which broadcasts on FM and online. Its mission is to “create a community for people of all ages who identify as LGBT to showcase and discuss the aspirations, concerns, successes and issues affecting them,” its official commitments state.

In 2022, UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom had initially ruled that Juice “was not meeting its requirement to broadcast LGBT anthems as part of its music output,” and instead appeared to be a “dance music service”.

However, after further monitoring the station, Ofcom decided that Juice Radio “no longer appeared to be a dance music service.”

After receiving a complaint, Ofcom investigated Juice again, requesting recordings of the station’s output. In their reply, the Belfast LGBTQ+ radio said that their programmes included a show called AMDMs (A Morning Dedicated to Matters), which aims to be “a dedicated space for exploring LGBT+ issues”.

They also said that the radio broadcast a feature titled Listen with Pride, which highlighted support organisations over 160 times a week. Moreover, the radio broadcast live from community events such as Belfast Pride and recruited community members as volunteers.

Despite all this, Ofcom ruled that the majority of Juice’s output was the same as a “mainstream” radio service. The judgment further stated: “The speech content we listened to consisted heavily of presenters announcing the music being broadcast within the hour.”

“It was not clear from listening to the content on-air that the service targeted the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Belfast,” it further read.

“This therefore suggested that Juice FM Belfast was a general service broadcasting a very limited amount of specialist programming for the LGBT+ community, rather than a service specifically for that community.”

Speaking to BBC News NI, Juice Radio’s head Shane Pearce called the ruling “truly baffling” saying that Ofcom was “flip-flopping” over what it wants.

“Three years ago, Ofcom challenged us with all the coherence of a poorly tuned radio signal,” Pearce added.

“We defended our mission rooted in community, diversity and authentic music, and Ofcom conceded that we met their requirements.

“Ofcom has changed their tune, claiming that our still compliant music policy and character of service no longer cut it.

“This flip-flopping isn’t just inconsistent, it’s a masterclass in contradiction.”

In a separate case, Ofcom won’t impose sanctions on GB News after the broadcaster was found in breach of its code by using offensive language against the community. The right-wing television channel received widespread backlash when presenter Josh Howie said the LGBTQ+ community included “paedos.”

Despite receiving over 71,000 complaints, Ofcom decided to take no action against GB News after Howie issued an on-air apology saying that he was only joking and wasn’t trying to compare “LGB people” to paedophilia. However, Howie used “LGB” rather than “LGBTQ+” like in the original comments, seemingly leaving out trans people from the apology.

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