Jonathan Nehmetallah, Project Lead of Pro Bono Radio, broadcasts a show at the CFRC station at Queen’s.
Jonathan Nehmetallah, Project Lead of Pro Bono Radio, broadcasts a show at the CFRC station at Queen’s.

“You’re on the air!”

Every Thursday morning, Queen’s Law students are live on CFRC 101.9 FM to deliver Pro Bono Radio, a legal issues radio show created, researched and hosted by Queen’s Law students. The 30-minute show is affiliated with Pro Bono Students Canada and features 18 JD students who rotate in groups of three or four to produce episodes about a variety of topics.

Jonathan Nehmetallah, Law’16, the project leader and a radio talent on the show, says that students can get involved without prior radio experience. “We look for people who are really clever, have great ideas for topics and who can spot a great idea that’s unravelling in the news or has a legal aspect that could be talked about in a fun and engaging way.”

Topics on the show vary widely and put an entertaining spin on various legal and pop culture issues, ranging from gender quotas to the legal systems of the Harry Potter series or Middle Earth. One series considered the legality of love, looking at how love and law intersect as relationships progress from casual dating to marriage, while another asked if music lyrics could be used as evidence in a murder trial.

While Queen’s Law has had a radio show for many years, the show’s current clever, quirky style has only developed in recent years. Pro Bono Radio is also one of the only law student radio shows in Canada to have survived many turnovers of students, living past its founders’ time at Queen’s.

The show is also expanding and trying out new initiatives. On Nov. 19, the students plan to record an episode live from the student lounge at Queen’s Law to incorporate more interactive audience feedback. They are also working to make their show available as a downloadable podcast online, expanding their reach beyond Kingston.

“Anyone can listen to it, not just other law students or prospective law students,” says Nehmetallah. “It helps us show that lawyers can be creative, multi-dimensional people and that law school can actually nourish that.”

Tune in to CFRC 101.9 FM on Thursdays from 11:30 am – 12:00 pm. Archived shows are also available through CFRC’s digital archives at www.cfrc.ca, and select episodes at probonoradio.com.