The development of radio in the Arab world is almost unique. The geography, political and colonial history, language, and culture have exerted profound influences on the medium in the region.

     Radio's development in the Arab world has moved through several stages. First there was the colonial period, when Italy and Britain began international broadcasting in Arabic. Also during this phase, the British and French created local stations in Palestine and in Lebanon/North Africa, respectively. Then there was a period of hostile radio propaganda, starting shortly after the Egyptian revolution in the early 1950s. Next, there was the creation in Jordan and in the Gulf stars of the first radio production and transmission capabilities established by Arab nations to defend themselves against hostile Egyptian, Syrian, and later Iraqi broadcasts that called for the overthrow of governments headed by families in Jordan and the Arabian Gulf states. (For the Gulf states, the oil-rich years after the 1974 fourfold oil-price increase had made the new and expanded electronic media infrastructure affordable.) Finally, there are the contemporary radio systems.

Early Radio Broadcasting

     The Arab world was targeted for the first Western broadcasts (before 1945) to a developing area with the goal of influencing its people. Italy began broadcasting across the Mediterranean in Arabic through its international radio service, Radio Bari, in 1934. The specific motivation for this effort is unclear, as there were few radio receivers in the Middle East at the time. (Receivers needed electricity, which was then available only in larger urban areas. In the 1920s and early 1930s, there were only a few low-power, privately owned stations in Egypt.) In that same year, the Egyptian government contracted with a British company to start an official radio station. Ar first the Italian Arabic programs had a virtual monopoly on the Middle East frequency spectrum, causing concern on the part of British diplomats serving in Egypt, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, and the Arabian Gulf sheikhdoms. The British Foreign and Dominions Office was alerted to the potential effects of such broadcasts, but reports from the field generally concluded that the programs were nor effective in swaying public opinion.

     Despite the measured British diplomatic response to Radio Bari broadcasts, reports circulated both unofficially and in the British press that Italy's increasingly anti-British programs had found a receptive audience and were effective in promoting Italian interests. Some of these reports came from those who understood the oral culture and the potential power of carefully crafted spoken Arabic that reached a primarily illiterate audience. Further, some well-informed Westerners in the Arab world knew about the male custom of frequenting coffee houses in the evening, drinking coffee and tea, and discussing politics. The following scene is the type of listening pattern about which some in British government grew increasingly concerned:

     When the day's work was done both the fellaheen (peasants) and the city dwellers would betake themselves to their favorite cafes, huddle together under a fuming oil lamp, and stolidly smoking their water pipes play game after game of backgammon until the communal loud­ speakers gave forth the voice of the Bari announcer (C.J. Rola, Radio Goes to War, 1941).

     By 1937 the British government realized the potential dan­ger of international armed conflict, particularly in Europe. At the time, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had a monopoly on broadcasting within the United Kingdom. Its external transmissions for British abroad, known then as the Empire Service, started in 1932 essentially as an extension of its English-only domestic service. The United Kingdom was studying the possibility of starting foreign-language broadcasts. In 1936 the British Foreign and Dominions Office asked diplomats around the world their reaction to the possibility of beginning BBC foreign-language broadcasts. The results were mixed, but posts in the Middle East were unanimous in recommending that an Arabic service be added. On 3 January 1938, the Empire Service officially started transmitting in Arabic, its first foreign-language broadcast. This event marked the beginning of the first international radio war over a developing region.

     In the 1930s, the British had a strong political presence in the Arab world. BBC advisors were employed to help establish the new Egyptian radio service. Once the BBC started its Arabic service, it was decided that this should be of exceptionally high quality, as Britain had the resources, talent, and experience in the Arab world to ensure that this goal was met. The BBC hired Egyptian announcers and sought to bring to its London microphones prominent Arab leaders as well as singers and musicians, resulting in what must have been an appealing radio offering. Radio Bari's Arabic broadcasts attempted to meet the British radio challenge by increasing the strident, vituperative nature of their political commentary.

     By 1938 radio ownership was becoming more common in urban homes and public coffee houses. The so-called radio war between Britain and Italy was, in fact, only a brief contest for listeners in the Arab world. Lasting from January to April 1938, verbal hostilities ended officially on 16 April 1938 with the signing of an Anglo-Italian pact. However, Nazi Germany started transmitting in Arabic for the first time in April 1938, just as the pact came into force. In 1939 both the Soviet Union and France began broadcasting in Arabic. The French, with interests then in North Africa, Lebanon, and Syria, had the advantage of either possessing medium wave facilities there for local programming or influencing domestic schedules, making possible local relays of Paris-based Arabic programming. The British had a similar advantage with their Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Jerusalem. During World War II, the main international broadcasters to the Arab world were Germany and the United Kingdom. These two countries encouraged the development of some rather strong and distinctive on-air radio personalities. The Nazi Arabic Service employed an Iraqi by the name of Yunus al-Bahri, who may have been the most gifted Arabic-language broadcaster ever to speak from Europe. However, the BBC also had popular announcers during the war. Isa Sabbagh, a broadcaster with a considerable Arab­ world following, was a Palestinian who later became a U.S. citizen and worked as a foreign service officer for the U.S. Information Agency.

Modern Broadcasting

     Each Arab state is unique, but from a radio broadcaster's perspective, a common language (especially the modern standard Arabic that was actually fostered by radio broadcasting), a common religion for the vast majority of Arabic listeners, a common history, and similar political interests ensure a large radio audience for international and domestic broadcasts. A large number of broadcasters from outside the area continue to transmit Arabic programming via radio to the Arab world. These organizations have attracted relatively large audiences for several reasons, in addition to those noted above: in the Arab world, only Lebanon has a system that permits private radio broadcasting, and the major international broadcasters (such as the BBC, Voice of America, and French-government­ owned Radio Monte Carlo Middle East) transmit to the area via powerful medium wave facilities. Conversely, the majority of Arab states have 1- or 2-million-watt medium wave transmitters that send a domestic service or special programs throughout the Arab world. Saudi Arabia, for example, has six medium wave transmitters (2 million watts each). Every Arab country has some shortwave transmission capability. Iraq had the most powerful shortwave transmission complexes in the Middle East until Allied air forces destroyed the French-built facility in January 1991 during the brief Gulf War.

     Perhaps the greatest influence on the development of Arab radio are the governments (through their Ministries of Information) that operate them. Competition-from innovative radio programmers in the Arab world, international broadcasters from the West, videocassette recorders, and traditional as well as satellite television-has convinced Arab governments that they must be responsive to listener preferences. Previously they generally refused to acknowledge these, but even the scant survey research in existence showed the need to offer listeners more than just what the government wanted them to hear, both in the areas of entertainment and Ministry of Information-mandated news. Before this realization, most radio news in the Arab world had essentially rebroadcast the government's views on a variety of social, political, and economic issues.

     Increasingly, listeners want high-quality local FM stations, especially for music listening. But radio will continue to evolve from North Africa to the Gulf states as both international and local broadcasts face competition for traditional audiences, who can now turn to over 100 satellite signals receivable at home with a $200 dish and converter.