{"id":351789,"date":"2025-12-16T09:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T09:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/351789\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T09:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T09:28:09","slug":"milton-keynes-radio-station-cleared-over-swearing-played-on-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/351789\/","title":{"rendered":"Milton Keynes radio station cleared over swearing played on loop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony FisherBuckinghamshire<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

A community radio station that broadcast a loop of expletives “for at least 26 minutes” has been cleared by Ofcom.<\/p>\n

Horizon Radio broadcast the offensive language to its listeners in Milton Keynes on October 9 when its programme was “hijacked” before it got to a transmitter.<\/p>\n

The regulator said “children were particularly likely to be listening” to the evening show, which was aired at 18:00 BST, but concluded the station did “everything in its control to minimise the impact of this incident”.<\/p>\n

Horizon Radio tried to get the stream turned off multiple times and provided Ofcom with a recording of an apology broadcast in the following hour once it had resumed control of its DAB output.<\/p>\n

The apology stated: “Earlier today, you may have heard some language broadcast which may have caused offence. <\/p>\n

“This was caused by circumstances outside our control, and we are very sorry for any offence this may have caused.”<\/p>\n

Stream ‘hijacked’<\/p>\n

Ofcom received complaints from three listeners that an offensive word was being broadcast on a loop.<\/p>\n

In its report<\/a>, the regulator said Horizon Radio’s web stream and DAB transmission were provided by third parties.<\/p>\n

Horizon Radio told Ofcom that its stream provider “‘hijacked’ a web stream” which consisted of a string of obscenities instead of airing the planned output.<\/p>\n

“[Horizon Radio] believed this happened because of a contractual dispute between the stream provider and another DAB multiplex provider,” the report said.<\/p>\n

Horizon Radio stated that its website and app did not use this stream.<\/p>\n

Horizon’s managing director heard the broadcast whilst driving and immediately tried to get the transmission stopped, the report said.<\/p>\n

Ofcom said there was evidence that the transmission provider was asked to turn off the Horizon Radio service on DAB at 18:32 BST and again at 18:43, at 18:44 and twice at 18:47. <\/p>\n

The correct service was restored at 18:50 BST.<\/p>\n

In its ruling, Ofcom said Horizon Radio took swift action to stop the incorrect stream from being broadcast.<\/p>\n

It also made an apology shortly after the incident, and it contacted the regulator to inform it about the situation.<\/p>\n

Ofcom concluded it did “everything in its control to minimise the impact of this incident” and the matter was now resolved.<\/p>\n

Horizon Radio said its technical manager now maintained all its streaming output and it no longer used the services of third-party stream providers, nor would it in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony FisherBuckinghamshire Getty Images A community radio station that broadcast a loop of expletives “for at least 26…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-351789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}