Radio appeal prior to ruling
The National Council for Radio and Television is to rule tomorrow on the status of Athens International Radio (AIR), the foreign-language radio program of City Hall’s Athina 98.4 FM station, which went off the air last Thursday after a prosecutor seized the station’s transmitter, claiming its license was invalid. Another six stations allegedly operating illegally were also shut down. The staff of AIR FM, still broadcasting at www.air1044fm.gr, said in a press release that it provided a crucial service. «AIR FM offers news and entertainment to foreigners living and working in Athens and to the city’s visitors, while also serving as a cohesive reference point for the capital’s foreign communities,» it said. AIR called on the government and local authorities – who face elections in November -. to «state their position on the underlying motives behind the abrupt closure of a station that provides a public service for citizens without commercial objectives.»
