Steve Hili was born in Germany. His father was in the Air Force and travelled around the world, until the family went to the United Kingdom, where they stayed until Steve was 10. He has now been in Malta for 15 years

Steve eventually read for a Communications Degree and joined a community station where he obtained training on how to be a DJ. He then joined Capital radio when it opened. He now forms part of the management committee running the station.

“I have a show called Fizzy Morning, which goes on air between 11am and 2.30pm at a time when kids are at school. Lately, the BA has started cracking down on us, and we have received a whole file of complaints, some of which I consider irrelevant.

Once I was talking about using condoms and I turned it into a bit of a joke, saying that for some guys it’s like having a bath with your socks on. They said I was promoting the use of contraceptives, which is not allowed and that I was promoting promiscuous behaviour. Frankly, I think with kids, something like that will go right over their heads.

At other times I have used the word “hot” to describe someone, which they translated as shan. I am always mentioning the British model Jordan (for obvious reasons). She has said that she’s going to publish a book about her ex-boyfriends, and I said it will be thicker than the Koran...again, we received a warning!

A colleague came in the studio and I said, “is that a knife she’s got?” and they accused me of promoting violence!

Even if we quote a funny story from the paper, it might be objectionable, because they tell us what might be good for print is not good for radio.

I have been doing this show for five and a half years and all of a sudden, there are all these complaints. I never intended this show for family entertainment: we have a specific target audience aged between 24 - 45. It is not meant for youngsters anyway, even the music we play shows you this.

I am aware that we are not allowed to mention such things before the 9pm watershed, but as I said, children are at school. However, the BA said, “you always have to keep in mind that there might be one or two kids are at home.”

It seems to me that the BA needs to get a sense of humour! It is like they are trying to get everyone into a straitjacket. They use the term “overstepping the boundaries of good taste”, which is very subjective.

We have come to a point where we can’t take the p**s out of anything, which is very difficult for me since I grew up in UK where such radio humour is normal. They are taking the fun out of radio and we are constantly on edge; what can we say or not say?

I believe the BA’s arguments don’t make much sense when we’ve got internet or cable where you can see and hear anything, but then they clamp down on local TV and radio.

I think the complaints are ridiculous, verging on the paranoid! There seem to be a lot of double standards because the lyrics of the songs we play are often quite objectionable and yet they don’t say anything about them.

You have to take the show in its context of being funny, satirical and not meant to be taken seriously. If you ask me, sometimes I think whoever is monitoring us doesn’t even get the jokes.”

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When asked for his comments, BA chairman Dr Kevin Aquilina said: “In so far as the charges issued against the programme Fizzy Morning are concerned, these charges were issued in accordance with the BA’s Family Viewing and Listening Policy, which was approved in October 2003. [Note: Among the factors listed are bad language, innuendo, blasphemy, explicit scenes or descriptions of sexual behaviour, and scenes or portrayal of extreme distress].

It must be pointed out that originally this policy was approved as a Viewing Policy on 7 July 2003 for television but was subsequently extended in October 2003 to cover radio services as well. Hence the watershed now also applies to radio programmes.

The five Fizzy Morning charges issued by the undersigned concerned violations of the above policy in so far as adult related matters were broadcast prior to the watershed. This programme is broadcast on a daily basis and a trend was established from reports about this programme over a two-week period that found that the presenter was referring to matters of a sexual nature which, in my opinion, were not suitable for children. This occurred in at least five programmes within a two -week span.

As this was a repetitive and not a one off occurrence, the point that children might not be listening to the radio as they would be at school does not apply in this case for this programme was and continues to be broadcast on non-school days and during holidays such as the summer vacation and the Easter holiday.

Furthermore, if children are sick and at home they can still tune in to this programme.

Moreover, the sexual content was practically a daily occurrence. The presenter was warned to keep the policy in mind in his future programmes.”

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