Syria, the revolution and the 3rd World War!

1st of all, and before starting to read, this is a disclaimer that what is written here are my personal opinions and observations. Based on a collection of information and a analysis by my self. A simple non-politician person.

Trying to link out observations & actions about what has been going around the middle east & Arab spring lately is making me more & more sure nowadays that what is going on currently in Syria , & all the hassle that is going to follow in the region is nothing but a 3rd world war! This time, the alliances are divided between Russia Vs. Qatar! (Yes its the west actually, but of course the west is just happy with the fact that qatar is put on front and dealing with everything, they are just intervening when its needed, and with minimal costs! remember, we are in a time of crisis!).. And this war is all about controlling the most active & modern resource nowadays, GAS, Natural Gas!

For those who don't know, natural gas is now the most demanded resource in the world, and will be during the soon coming future.. It's clean (burning it produces only CO2 & water),  efficient, perfect for factories & heating (hint: high demand in the heavy industrial northern part of the globe), & electricity generation, with the newly developed multi cycle gas generators.. All of this applies especially for the developing countries (no one is gonna burn coal or heavy fuel any more when considering a source of energy for any of the above), & the industrially driven northern part of the planet, including Japan, China, & the whole European continent (which are becoming less and less dependent on nuclear energy after the focoshima explosion).

In case you don't know, Qatar & Russia are in control of this resource more and more world wide, how?
1. Huge gas reserves
2. Gas Exploration companies world wide. (Qatar has several oil and gas companies but is also a major player in international companies like Shell , but also in others)
3. The ability to cut the supply & control the price, And this is more applicable to Qatar , which has very huge storages of gas floating over very huge ships all over the oceans. But also Russia has almost half of Europe under control with a push of a button on its gas pipes. Let me clarify here that Qatar is not the largest producer, Iran, but also countries like Algeria, & KSA are publicly said to, have bigger reserves and production, but Qatar is actually controlling the storage & shipping facilities world wide. with the floating storages for gas all over the world qatar is actually able to limit the supply and change the world price anytime! (well, this is its objective actually.)
Check this: http://shipbuildinghistory.com/today/highvalueships/lngqatar.htm

Norway is also a big player in the industry, but it's having it's own "fixed-price" customers  (mainly the Scandinavian countries), and it's slightly loosing exploration sites outside Norway.

Mentioning Iran above, you should now that it was and still is Qatar's benefit to have Iran continuously out of the game lately with the sanctions applied on it. Iran cannot sell its gas now neither in US dollars nor in euros, and it cannot develop gas storage and shipping facilities by it self with these sanctions. So it's only major gas importer is ... Turkey! Which pays the gas price in GOLD! Though it's prefixed agreed on price, turkey wanted always to get independent from the Iranian gas by having a pipeline from Egypt (remember that this was a project performed in the days of mubarak).
And lets also not forget that iran is Russia's partner in the area. So weakening it is in benefit of qatar, and turkey will release its dependency on the iranian gas, with such a current bad position for iran economically, russia will be loosing yet another battle in the war!

Last but not least, the final fix-price gas supplier (other than iran and norway, and partially egypt with its supply of gas to israel), is Algeria, its main customers are the southern european countries, Spain, italy, and of course France. It actually has 2 pipelines ending in france, one from the west crossing maroco & spain (supplying spain partially with its needs , as the rest is supplied by Qatar), and one from the east crossing Tunisia and italy (italy again partially, as the rest is supplied by Qatar).


So after all those chunks of information now, lets go back to what is actually happening across the arab world at the moment, the so called arab spring... is it an organized chaos after all?! unfortunately, someone was wise enough in qatar to benefit from the need and thrust of the arabic nations for democracy and justice, and use the huge media tool that they have (aljazeera, but also other media channels and ways which qatar is partially financing) psychologically and emotionally pretending to be on the right side supporting the people, and do the needed change to remove the people that stand against their plan in controlling Gas resources across their biggest lost market (Europe) and smash russia's gas power in Europe.

Look at Tunisia, did the people get better conditions? are the country's resources being used for the benefit of the people and making their life better? what about freedom and democracy? are the people of the country really ruling it?
Look at egypt, again, are the country's resources being used for the benefit of the nation? arent the poor towns the lack even clean drinking water meters away from the multi swimming pools resources across egypt still have as bad conditions as before? even further more, isn't egypt now DROWNING IN DEBT! taking loans with billions of dollars every 3 months from the IMF and others? arent the protesters still being beaten in the street like before? isn't the country being ruled in exactly the same way, though the ruling president and parties have completely radically changed now alot of people will gonna start telling me how good is mursi and so, but look at the real situation on the ground.. maybe he is good, but he is definitely not the one ruling the country, maybe the outer policy of egypt now is way better than before... But think about it for a little bit.... emotions, again?!
Remember that Qatar, the fully emotional support for arab's rights in freedom in equality doesn't only arrest you if you are trying to say something against its regime, it actually kidnaps you! you simply disappear!

And the funny thing, that aljazeera actually shows the situation now in Egypt and Tunisia pretty rosy, while its not so at all! maybe in the past couple of weeks things in Tunisia and Egypt were exactly like 2 years ago, but the media coverage is simply ignoring that.

While libya, oh libya... if this country was ruled by 1 family gang, now its being ruled by hundreds of gangs .... we will return to libya in a moment.


So, why Tunisia, the country that surprised the west with its revolution! Yup! The west didnt believe at the beginning that qatar would actually do such a thing... It was a proof by Qatar that this can be done, a demonstration! in addition to opening the 1st path of algerian gas line towards europe... But wait, what happened to Algeria? wasnt there quite alot of demonstrations in there as well? I remember we saw alot of police on the streets as well beating the protesters....! out of a sudden after a visit for the emir of Qatar to algeria, & some "economical agreements" everything went quite! Algeria's gas in safe Qatari companies hands, and the Norwegian gas companies are being kicked out of algeria with a "terrorist act" against one of the gas plants they hold in algeria after the IN AMINAS attack, the Norwegian gas company withdrew all its operations from algeria, terrorists?! oh yeah! Made by ... "Imagine it yourself"

While the other line, via morocco... Well, Morocco hat things settled with the qataris in a short time, so the demonstrations didn't last, plus the king did enough reforms to make things according to people demands, lets note that morocco already had a parliamentary elected government, the only one in the arab world.

Ok, Egypt!
Egypt has been exporting gas for quite a while now mainly via ships at a fixed price, as well as a pipeline supplying israel with a fixed free cheap price to israel, was and still, even via ships before building the pipeline. Then came the big real project of egypts gas, the one that egypt would have benefited from since it had very limited abilities to export via ships, the project was making a pipeline to Turkey, via Jordan & Syria, with plans to be later connected to eastern europe & the rest of europe hopefully.
Europe? Turkey? thats Russia's market! Further more, russia's market that Qatar wants!
So actually ever since the pipeline was built and inaugurated, russia's partner in the region, syria, tried all possible ways to put impediments against having the flow of gas in that line to turkey, Russia was giving gas for free to syria, so if syria wanted gas from the pipeline, it wanted as much as possible for free as well! But egypt wants to sell! and to sell more for the bigger consumer turkey. so the actual agreed amounts of gas actually never got through the pipeline, not even to Jordan.

Solution, Qatar got the solution, It removes mubarak and his regime, rule the country in a similar old-regime way with different people closer to the people,i will let you be creative and google how many qatari investments were planned in egypt after the revolution, here is just ONE result. & then open a way for the pipeline by a revolution in.... Of Course, SYRIA!

But what about libya.. & whats with this dramatic end for Gadafi and his regime, & how did he accept all of this to happen around him in his great africa!
Well, thats the thing! Gadafi was an impediment! A person that talks too much! rumbles and rumbles, maybe in a stupid way, but true facts.. he is never afraid from saying facts. So he will definitely not agree on having Qatar controlling the gas resources in Algeria and the pipelines to europe, and definitely not agree having Qatar controlling the gas resources of Egypt, (because Qatar is not from Africa! Maybe ... he definitely didnt like Mubarak or Bin Ali).
& of course the west will not dare to deepen more into gold-rich african sahara, because he will just send the touarig over to kill their dreams. [hint: Mali as an example!]

Solution, eliminate him! not only eliminate him, but since you have already convinced the west about the applicability of the big-revolution theory, the west can get involved as well... & for free.. Qatar Pays!
Actually the west is just waiting the chance, not only to start getting use from resources, but also to prevent Gadafi's dream of building the world's first GOLD-BASED bank along with the gold-rich african countries! & later issue an african gold currency.... You can imagine that the dollar, euro and pound papers will all be grounded by a golden currency. So by this, they are removing the risk, and getting control over the gold. And after all, a total chaos in libya is just the key to take care of everything else around,,, one day the guys will have time for libya as well.

Actually, think about it a little bit, After the whole thing in libya was done, the guys over there already have cars and weapons, just send them over to mali trying to terror the people of the gold-rich northern mali, spend a year there erasing the entire history and signs of civilization in that part [which is purely islamic by the way (Check this and this)], then the savers will take over, the savers are france and slightly the US, the same exact people who helped Qatar in libya with the exact same percentages of intervention! a payback! sounds like.

Ah, lets not forget about Yemen, Qatar is still trying to gradually control Its gas resources [Amazingly they already have a good gas infrastructure with pipelines and supply ports, plus, Aden's port have a strategic position, but its importance got lost lately with the Somalian pirates, and earlier with the raise of Dubai as a hub instead].. Maybe Yemen, Bahrain and Kuwait or on the to do list for Qatar to actually hit its big neighboring competitor, Saudi Arabia ... who knows whats in their mind? but what is obvious at the moment is that the Qatari are not focusing on the gulf any more, ... They have SYRIA! Thats a headache, an important one.

So ... as the south western european plan is currently being formulated by taking control over the algerian gas and its supply lines. The turkish/eastern european plan is giving Qatar a headache with the syrian impediment. But giving russia a headache as well... So this is actually where both parts of the conflict are exposing all the dirty games that they have.... along with iran, who doesn't want to loose its arm in the region and its only remaining gas client.
Everyone is pushing their intelligence on the ground, media propaganda against each other, and weapons on the ground (Syrian Army Vs Free Syrian Army) that much that it became usual to see rebels in syria having ground and anti-plane artillery even more frequent that how it was in libya. while the russians are pushing tons and tons of weapons in syria, russian war ships and cargo planes are continuously supplying the syrian regime with weapons.
and who pays... the people, unfortunately... the innocents, who dont want Asad and those who do as well! they are all victims of this dirty micro war between the big guys. all for a sake of a ... GAS PIPE!

If its not so, whats the big secret then behind the insisting of having Asad leaving without discussions... Will the opposition people that might lead the country after him be better, I doubt so... They will suck the hell out of the country even a more corrupt regime. & whats this blind support for Asad and all his absurd actions by russia and iran (inc its lebanese little militia), they are all actually blind because they dont care about the poor people, they dont give a damn about its rights, they care only for their interests in having that line or preventing it.

If any of the 2 parties would have cared, they would have spent 20%, only 20% of the enurmous amounts of money they spent in injecting weapons in syria for the poor refugies in the countries around syria, isn't it easier for hezbullah to send people & money to aid syrians who refugeed to lebanon (who are mostly from damascus, regime supporters in a way or another} instead of injecting more fire into the conflict, and same applies to Qatar of course! to much dirt in this conflict.

I would rather end this post here, I think that i said enough above that can make a bit clearer vision of whats in my mind about all the mess happening around the middle east nowadays. stressing on the fact that I was never, and still not, a supporter of Asad or Mubarak or Gadafi, nor any of the newly brought leaders in the region ... because i honestly don't care or judge according to individuals, but rather their actions. and as far as i am seeing, actions are still the same, and the game is dirty!

JRFC Talents Gallery

The Jordanian Romanian Forum for Culture invites you to its “Talent's Gallery”. Opening this coming Wednesday, the 18th at 6 PM in Mecca Mall – New Extension, at the Ground Floor. The gallery will continue on Thursday and Friday,the 19th and 20th.


Va invita Forumul Cultural Iordaniano Roman la "Galeria De Talente". Deschiderea va fii Mercuri 18 noiembre la ora 18.00 la Mecca Mall - Etaj Parter. Galeria va continua joi si vineri 19 si 20.


يدعوكم المنتدى الأردني الروماني للثقافة لحضور "جاليري المواهب". و الذي سيفتتح يوم الأربعاء 18 نوفمبر \ تشرين الثاني - الساعة السادسة مساءً، و يستمر طيلة أيام الخميس و الجمعة ، 19 و 20 نوفمبر. و ذلك في مكة مول – التوسعة – الطابق الأرضي.

Radio Guide Update: Sawt Al-Madina on 93.3 FM in Irbid

Sawt Al-Madina started its test transmission in the nothern town of Irbid, on 93.3 FM for over a week now.

this is the 1st frequency for Sawt Al-Madina outside Amman, despite the fact that its transmission from the Ammani wave covers several towns around the capital.

RDS on Radio Jordan's stations

Radio Jordan Broadcasting Corporation has lunched by the end of August RDS service on several of its working radio services' frequencies on the FM waves.

Those who tune in to 90.0 FM and 106.7 FM in the greater Amman area can now have “Radio Jordan Main Program” appearing on their RDS radio screen, while those who tune in to 96.3 FM will have the statement “Radio Jordan Foreign Program” appearing on their radio screen.

The other radio stations that belong to Radio Jordan Broadcasting do not have RDS yet, nor was i certain about whether other working frequencies outside Amman for the 2 stations mentioned above have RDS working, or if they support RDS-AF (RDS Auto Frequency switching when you get out of a frequency's range and enter another one's range).

Radio Jordan might have been trying to evolve in the past couple of years, and i have discussed this several times on my blog in several occasions, and here is another step forward. As Radio Jordan's stations were almost the only ones that do not have RDS running.

Now technically speaking, Radio Jordan is still, despite the big possibilities the corporation holds, by the end of the list among Jordanian radio stations, mainly because of managerial issues. For example, several frequencies still suffer from Bad sound quality, while all the problem might be in setting an equalizer properly, Radio Jordan Foreign Service on 96.3 FM is a simple example (You can just observe the base's noise by the moment you switch to it), or a problem in the output cables like the same station's frequencies in Ajloun on 90.9 FM which still suffers from the same problem for several years now with its low echoish sound level problem. Or by not restricting the usage of low quality tracks , despite the availability of high quality originals, a problem mostly notable on the Main Program's Service. Or the simple unnecessary duplicity of service, which highers the costs, just like having 2 FM Frequencies for the main service covering the capital (90.0 and 106.7 FM) , and same for Amman FM (99.0 and 88.0 FM), while there are other areas that are not covered by transmission, or having null transmission, like irbid's local frequency on 95.4 FM.

Big evolutions were made in programming, mainly on The Main Service and Amman FM. And great efforts have been made on the role of the foreign service, but we still have some radio announcers performing on national radio's airwaves like if they are dealing with their car sound system! For example, Yes, we still hear Arabic music on the Foreign service.

The big problem is that all those issues are really minor issues for such a big corporation that can be handled and solved easily. But without them, Radio Jordan will not be able to go the next step in attracting back the trust of the people.

Maybe a proper example from my personal experience is Radio Romania, which is now very competitive in a very jammed market like the Romanian market, but is still having its weight by coverage 1st of all (covering the entire country with a wide range of FM frequencies with high transmission and sound quality along with RDS-AF), programming (Mainly news along with shows targeted for the nation and hot-AC quality Music, both Romanian and western), and appearance (Branding, events ... etc), along with a range of subsidiary local and nation-wide radio stations, among which some unique ones like Radio Romania Cultural, and Itsy-Bitsy FM (a children oriented radio station with very high ratings and listenership).

Spin Jordan, 1 Year of evolution in Jordan's CHR Radio

Today marks one year exactly since SPIN Jordan when on the Ammani airwaves on 94.1 FM , and at the same time, ever from the 1st day, in Irbid in the north and Ma'an in the south.

Ever since startup, Spin Jordan started with 3 frequencies, followed by a forth in Aqaba lately, being by that the only CHR Radio that dared to get out of the capital's borders. and gave a big hit in both irbid and aqaba.

Spin also started with a rich grid of shows less than 1 month since startup! something that other station spent YEARS to achieve, and some didnt yet though the have been on air over a year and a half and are still satisfied with 1 show that goes on vacations even. and this grid of shows didnt stop there, but went over richer during this year to have specialized music shows as well.

Talking about Music, Spin flipped over Jordanian CHR Radios playlists, and even played a role in having some bands being played for the 1st time on jordanian radios (Hint Hint: Kings of leon, The Script, and others). and we finally got to hear alternative hits and non-commercial hits played on the radio!

While when it comes to production, SPIN had a remarkable role in getting the radio quality standards in Jordan higher ... from basic concepts like "no moments of silence allowed on the airwaves" and "no talking over songs", to high quality productions and jingles ... as well as talking arabic on the airwaves of a CHR Radio, a big step forward, and one that never took place on jordanian CHR radios, from jingles like (دايماً الهتس أحلى عـ سبن) to ads in the streets and media, to actual talking on the radio.

Happy Anniversary Spin! we might have waited quite a while for you to come over on our airwaves, but this waiting worth it :)

Intercity Public Transportation in mess

Been a while since i have blogged about public transportation in jordan, and since i've blogged in general due to the fact that i was pretty busy lately, as well as out of the country.

Intercity public transportation has been in a mess lately across jordan, and i am not claiming it was perfect, but at least it was doing the job.

During this summer, things seemed to be going towards a mess in the sector due to several facts. and some of the solutions were causing problems in other parts of the sector, and so on.

Probably this mess was quite an effect on the public due to the fact that it happened on major lines connecting the capital Amman with the major jordanian cities around it. along with the general usual mess that occurred after petrol prices went high again, leaving the PTRC un-handling the case properly like before and causing a mess among the sector's operators and users.

Users of Major lines connecting the capital Amman to Irbid, Salt and Zarqa have been suffering lately. It all started when Irbid-Amman's big buses started a strike by the end of last june along with a strike for the Amman-Irbid white cabs asking for their fairs to be increased after the raise in gasoline prices.
The Big Buses drivers and owners had this strike for the 4th or 5th time, asking again & again to have their operations combined with the small coaster buses, which are, despite being individually owned, operating under a single-owned phantom line operator called "3aroos el Shamal Transport", a company that doesn't own a single bus! More about the coaster/big bus battle can be found here. The strike continued till several days before ramadan, after no solution was found by the PTRC.

On the other hand, 2 other Major lines, Zarqa-UJ-Sweileh and Salt-Raghadan, which are also licensed to big companies that, probably own buses, but sub-contract the operation to individuals driving them, without the needs to care about their maintenance and quality of operation [details available in this response of mine], have been facing trouble after most of their buses are not even willing to start and run any more. this forced the PTRC to find substitutes for operation on those 2 hot lines that work almost 24/7. and from where could those substitutes be but from other lines! on Salt-Raghadan line for example substitutes were some big Irbid-Amman buses (yup, those on strike, but only with a Wasta!), and big Jerash-Amman buses leaving the small town of jerash almost disconnected from the capital with only 2 small buses operating on this line!

While on the other hand, on the Zarqa line, the substitute were buses from the CMTC, which still has some of its lines in the capital Amman badly operated!

Anyway, the transportation between zarqa and Amman was enhanced, or tried to be, by a 60 years old 20km/h running train, operating during ramadan twice a day, by a trip from Zarqa towards Amman at 7.30 AM in the morning and a trip back at 3.30 PM. a nice idea after the death of the Amman-Zarqa light railway project, esp that as declared that the train carts are rehabilitated and air conditioned even. but unfortunately, the announcements of this service didnt exceed some short press releases in the newspapers, resulting in only 6 passengers at its 1st day of operation.

Radio Guide Update: Amen FM on 101.7 FM in Ma'an

Amen FM, the police dept radio station started broadcasting in Ma'an and Ras Al-Naqab area lately on 101.7 FM.

By this Amen FM is now covering most of the kingdom in 4 FM airwaves across the country

Radio Guide Update: Ayyam FM on 93.5 FM in Aqaba

Ayyam FM has also started its frequency in Aqaba Special Economic Zone on 93.5 FM.

Ayyam FM started broadcasting in aqaba with its sister communicorp radio station, Spin, earlier last week.

Radio Guide Update: Spin Jordan on 103.5 FM in Aqaba

Spin Jordan started broadcasting on 103.5 FM in the Jordanian sea port city of Aqaba and its surrounding areas.

Spin Jordan is currently the only english speaking jordanian radio station with 4 frequencies around the kingdom, after starting less than 1 year ago with 3 frequencies in Amman , Irbid and Maan. and is one of the very few with a frequency in Aqaba, where the only non state radio stations running there are Fann FM and Amen FM.

Radio Guide Update: Virgin Radio Jordan on 93.7 FM ... soon!

Yes, its finally official.

The station broadcasting on 93.7 FM in the Amman Greater Area is Virgin Radio Jordan.

After over 2 years of random music broadcasting without a station title on 93.7 FM but a random RDS name that goes by the name of "Nojoum FM".

and after witnessing a store in City Mall that now is almost finished but not equipped yet, and is obviously nothing but the station's studio [studio in the mall, how cool is that :) ]

Virgin Radio Jordan seems to be lunching just around the corner as , i expect, a CHR radio of another kind, one that would play both arabic and western contemporary hits! this is what i can see from what they are playing on 93.7 FM at the moment.

More soon! Hopefully!

UPDATE: No signal is available any more on 93.7 FM

UPDATE 08-Sep-2009: The test transmission has returned on 93.7 FM

My Radio Segment, Episode 15

Sorry for being away for awhile, since i was busy over my heads as well as out of the country.

But for those who follow my radio segment episodes through my blog, Season 1 of my radio segments was wrapped up by mid-May, and here goes episode 15 which was aired on the 27th of April. and will be followed by the May Episode number 16, which was the last one of this season.


This episode is available for download HERE, and for listening on the listen icon.

The 15th episode of my radio segment mainly discussed Comedy Radio Shows on the Jordanian airwaves. As there are several radio shows of this genre being aired on the Jordanian radio stations on daily or weekly basis, as well as other shows that are making appearance on the airwaves in specific times of the year, like the holy month of Ramadan.

The 1st to be mentioned out of those , is definitely the most popular “Nakshet Mo5”, and the one Nadeem Sarraj got famous from as a radio comedian, on Mazaj FM. The show is mainly a comedian phone pranks show. And is still broadcasted on Mazaj FM as a “Best Of ..” , although Nadeem Sarraj became part of radio Ayyam FM.
Mazaj FM has also two other comedy shows of different nature and are more considered to be monologue comedy, the first is a social pamphlet by the Egyptian comedy artist yousef Ma'atee and is called “Maatee Show”, which is not produced by Mazaj FM but Mazaj has its broadcasting rights in Jordan, while the other is produced by Mazaj FM and is political comedy monologue by the Jordanian artist Nabil Sawalha and is called "Nashret Ghaseel".

On Ayyam FM, Nadeem Sarraj came back with a new comedy radio show called "Etla3 Men Rasee" and a new different personality for phone pranks, the thing that Nadeem knows the best in Radio Comedy, and which no one would compete with him except for Mohamed Al-Madfa3ee's show on Radio Fann during Ramadan "Osman fee Ramadan.

Finally on Radio Al-Balad, a different comedy show started in the new programs cycle that goes by the name “Bella 3alek”, and is mainly oriented towards discussing the ironic matters of life and people. Unlike other programs, the show involves more than one person playing different roles in it, and includes a lot of music and sound effects. But the program is considered to be kind of long! Reaching 25 - 30 minutes. It might have been better if it was more focused and shorter, and more comic and popular even!

Reviewing the Jordanian airwaves during Mid April, when this episode was aired, we start from thursday April 16th, when a Jordanian radio station had its airwaves lock down along with over 25 radio stations from all around the world to broadcast live probably the most famous and listened to radio show on planet earth, that is, as Beat FM listeners had the chance to join over 300 million listener to listen to Episode 400 of “A state of Trance” , the show wasn't by then broadcasted on the Jordanian airwaves, but was rather a notice that Beat FM will start broadcasting “A state of Trance” on weekly basis, which it did several weeks later.

Also on Beat FM, a new drive back show had started by the name of “The Drive”, occupying this prime time period on the airwaves of Beat FM.

While on the other hand, Play 99.6 also have a new show (you can feel the concurrency in the air), but this time its not a drive back show as Play already has one, its an evening show, or period, in which a DJ plays music in the 8 – 10 PM period, and takes the people's request for their favorite songs, the thing is that , and for the 1st time on Play's airwaves, this DJ speaks Arabic! We are mentioning that Arabic is getting more and more on the airwaves of Jordanaian CHR radio stations which play western music. One big example is SPIN where all its DJs speak Arabic along with English on the airwaves. While here on Play, this DJ speaks only in Arabic, which maybe annoying for some of the station listeners, but Play indeed knows what its doing by this, as this will attract more listeners who do not usually listen to CHR and western radio stations on the Jordanian airwaves. As well as the fact that this period is one in which young people listen more to radio, and thus, a wide range of new listeners for the station.

Taxi Al-Momayaz .. not so Momayaz!?

Been a while since i did some public transportation blogging , ha!? Don't worry .. still here, monitoring :)

In the last several months or so, we had witnessed some Kuwaiti investments in the public transportation sector, that were unfortunately rapidly hit by the global economic crisis as others. 1st was the Amman-Zarqa light railway project , that until now, not just only didn't get to see light, but is still in a “tendering mode!” , that is after the 1st investor (Pakistani – Chinese – Jordanian alliance of a constructor contractor , steel manufacturer and real estate office respectively ) was rejected after it exceeded the time limit of assuring the needed money twice. The 2nd company taking over this BOT project was a strong Kuwaiti – Spanish alliance that applied their strength in rising up the projects expenses, but also failed twice in assuring the needed money, and thus the project was withdrawn from it by the government, resulting in having a case raised up in an international court, where the government is currently paying this alliance back!

Anyway, On the other hand, the Kuwaitis came up taking a license last year for Al-Momayaz Taxi, to be a quality taxi service with high standards, availability, on demand service, and quality. Especially after the PTRC's failure and what was to be called “The beige taxi” few years back, which happened to be nothing more or less than the yellow ones, and are still roaming our streets just like the yellow cabs.

So, the crisis came, and the modifications started in Al-Momayaz tender! 1st from the time of starting (which was a couple of months late), to the number of cars to start with (the actual start was less than 50 cabs), the type of cars (From 200 Toyota Camrys and 200 Mercedes E200 to 300 Toyota Corollas and 100 Mercedes E200), until the changes in tariffs and making the Mercedes tariff start from 1 JD, though gas prices were much higher and time of contracting!

Anyway, Me personally, as a seeker for quality, didnt have any problem getting into a silver colored Corolla, just like other Corolla cabs roaming around the Jordanian streets and paying extra money just for the sake of quality, quality to be represented with several added value services starting from polite and well trained drivers, with no “sorry that's not my way” excuses, to GPS tracking for the cars, requesting cabs by phone (also assisted by the GPS tracking system to let operators choose the closest car to your location), specified tariffs regardless of the time or destination, and even electronic payment.

When things come to the ground, you can obviously find that those from Al-Momayaz Taxi care about the image, the cars are always clean and tidy from inside and outside as well as their drivers, who are well selected and are professional as well as polite ones. Momayaz Taxi are also making sure to have stationaries at several luxurious hotels and commercial centers around town. But , is that all that is needed by such a service !?

Well, when it comes to the riding experience, Al-Momayaz taxi has new kinds of taxi counters (still not as supposed to be and not up to European standards), but good enough to be clear and give you a receipt with your trip details. And you'd pay just as the counter says, with no extra amounts of money for certain areas like yellow cabs would sometimes do when you tell them you want to go to a place they don't prefer. And al-momayaz drivers accept to stop and wait for you to drop by a shop or something during the trip without any problems, much not like the yellow cab drivers. But when it comes to late night hours (after midnight mainly), several experiences showed up that we still do have the after midnight problem of not sticking to the counter even in the Al-Momayaz Taxi! Either by having the driver telling you short and to the point that this would cost you an X amount of money without running the counter, or even pretending that they forgot to run the counter or close it “By mistake” during the trip!

Now the amount of money asked by them after midnight can be even less than yellow cabs at this time of the night, and pretty equal to how much the counter would count, the only difference is that the driver would get the money for his own pocket, and not for the company's.... when asking the drivers why would they do that, they all answer the same complaining from the Kuwaiti company's administration and their low wages (which is 250 JDs plus commissions by the way). Not that much for a driver who has been driving for at least 3-4 years! And what kind of QOS would come when you give your employees such low wages! It would have been more convenient for the Kuwaitis to give more wages for their drivers than having ads on small dirty and unclear ads boards on the middle of the road!

Last but not least, when it comes to phone requesting the cab, the call center is simply rubbish! I've never, ever been answered until now by the customer service operators! It simply keeps ringing and ringing with no answer even in day time. Now the call center is divided into both, an automated taxi request (which weirdly is not always active !! as sometimes the phone just starts ringing at the operator after you hear a voice that the call is recorded for quality measurement), and a vocal one that keeps ringing with no answer as mentioned earlier. As for the automated request, the menu is kind of boring, with some nonsense questions like (press 1 to have a home taxi request or 2 for an office taxi request). And the fact that the automated request prevents you from specifying a time that is less than 30 mins ahead from your call.

Last but not least, i observed that request operators speak with the drivers regarding the requests through the phone (the tracking device is over GSM and has a phone as well), using a headset, and once i even noticed that the operator has assigned a request to the taxi i was riding with despite the taxi was occupied with my order. The driver was telling the operator that he didn't receive the request and that he is occupied already, a very meaningful conversation that showed up that the tracking system they are using is not that of a magnificent one as it didn't show the taxi was occupied for the operator, nor sent the request correctly.

Taxi Al-Momayaz is a good service to have, but it can be much more better even!

My Radio Segment, Episodes 13 & 14

I'm merging both the 13th [ available for download HERE ] & 14th [available for download HERE] episodes together in this report, broadcasted on the 6th and 13th of April respectively, due to the fact that one of them has follow up information for the other. The 14th episode have extra information only about Radio Al-Balad's new programs grid and its details.

Today i have no segment, and i shall be back on the airwaves next week with more news and subjects.

Started the 12th episode with a follow-up for the subject of episode before, with regards to planning the radio frequencies with neighboring countries, that is, as i discussed this subject over a telephone interview with the chief of TRC, Dr. Ahmed Hyasat, who explained the role of the TRC in organizing the coverage of Jordanian Radio stations' frequencies and their coverage, as well as insuring they wouldn't intersect with radio stations from neighboring countries, especially in border areas. In addition to conducting periodic coordination meetings with authorities in neighboring countries to regulate the frequencies and ensure that no interference would be caused neither by Jordanian or foreign radio stations, in addition to having direct communications channels with them in case of having coverage violations, especially violations that exceed border areas in the depth of Jordanian territories.
Dr Hyasat also stated in the interview that both radio stations as well as listeners themselves have a role in detecting such violations and reporting them to the TRC that would care to investigate and make necessary actions for the reported cases.

In my weekly review of the airwaves, I start from Irbid FM, Radio Jordan's local radio station broadcasting on 95.4 FM in irbid area, which has been stopped during this week and without any prior notice or declared reason, and whether this stop is permanent or temporary; how ever, recent news from Radio Jordan Broadcasting stated that this is a temporary stop, as the station will be facing some restructuring in both its employees and programs. Irbid FM is the only local radio station with specific programs targeting residents of the area its covering, and this radio station which started around 16 years ago on 103 FM in irbid area during specific hours on the same frequency of Radio Jordan Broadcasting – Main Service, has reached 7 hours of local broadcasting lately, while the remaining hours Radio Amman FM was broadcasting on this frequency.

Also, the radio station broadcasting on 93.7 FM in Amman, which i mentioned in an earlier episode that its still untitled (except for the RDS name “Nojoum FM”) and whose broadcasting is limited to broadcasting non stop Arabic song for over a year now. We started hearing some changes on it airwaves during this week, as its transmission stopped several times and we now can hear both Arabic and Western music on its airwaves, the station is also no longer entitled as Nojoum FM. This may signify the beginning of an actual beginning for the station soon.

On the other hand, a new station started its broadcasting on 94.9 FM covering the region of Amman, the station was still untitled at the time of preparing and broadcasting the 13th episode, but the week after i followed up and figured out this is the test transmission for Jordan University Radio. The station shall officially start its programs by the end of the month.

While in Karak, Mutah University's Radio station, Sawt Al-Karak, started its test broadcasting on 91.3 FM covering Karak area. The station shall officially start its programs soon as well during next may. Being a community radio serving the local area and community.

Moving further to reviewing what was on the running stations airwaves, i start from Friday 3-4-2009, in which, as the friday before and each and every friday, Radio Sawt Al-Madina was pretty busy with its special program and live transmission from one of Amman's cafes to follow and promote for the Jordanian participants in the reality TV & musical program “Star Academy”, with a lot of people on location, and even some of the program's stars from previous years, Sawt Al-Madina made a unique action for this program and among its fans and followers in jordan.

While on Beat FM, the Jordanian English speaking CHR radio, Beat FM had broken the CHR barriers with a 1st of April fool, as it broadcasted old Arabic songs on its airwaves! Not any songs, but those from old cartoon series translated in Arabic, and which we used to follow when we were little kids back in time. Those cartoon songs were presented within Beat FM's special promotion for “Fresh New Beats” :) ... 2 of those promotions are included in the 13th episode.

On the other hand, Radio Al-Balad had also broken the barriers, by having western music, more specifically Rock and Metal music starting to be aired on its airwaves through a specialized show entitled “Rock with Ghassan”. This programs comes as part of Radio Al-Balad's new programs grid which began on Saturday 4-4-2009. the show which comes out every Thursday from 7.30 PM is now the 4th of a kind, after Beat FM's, Spin Jordan's and Radio Jordan's rock shows. [show promotion attached]

also in this new programs grid, several shows got introduced on Radio Al-Balad, like “Sa7ebat al-qarar”, a legal information show for women, “Made in Jordan”, yet another sport program called “Mala3eb Ordoniah” and a come back for the cultural show “bera2e7at al-qahwa”.

One of the good things in this new programs grid (as radio al-balad changes its programs grid several times a year being a community radio), is the fact that most of the major shows are still on their same air times and days. And this is a good step, as changing the programs timing continuously makes the station loose listenership, due to the fact that a lot of listeners may stop listening to the radio station as their favorite shows get changes in times (maybe now you might know why most the commercial stations have the same programs and timings since they were lunched).

Indeed, sometimes the change is needed if there are fatal mistakes in the programming, at that case, re-programming [content and timing] are more of a need. An example of that was the dramatic changes in the programs grid on radio al-balad at the beginning of the year.

My Radio Segment, Episode 12

This episode is available for download HERE, and for listening on the listen icon.

This episode, aired on the 30th of march, was more of a rumble, about the impact of having Jordanian radio stations covering all the places throughout Jordan, and the media role of radio station in delivering the information to citizens through its airwaves, regardless of the main objective of these radios.

Taking as an example the transition to daylight summertime over that weekend and the participation of Jordan in the earth hour initiative, plenty of people did not got information on these “announcement” properly or clear enough, or not even at all maybe! Despite the fact of having all those radio stations populating the airwaves, & despite the high claimed listenership of radios. Which is an entertainment and media mean that is completely free and can be made available through the simplest ways and devices, without the need of having to current electricity even.

As the options went multiple for the listeners, people are no longer depending on the official state radio, or news radio stations to obtain information and entertainment. Thus, to ensure that the examples mentioned above of information would reach to the entire nations, Radio stations, regardless of their different types and genres, should stay apart from the formal nature in the provision of those kind of information. What would stop entertainment radio station (be it that they broadcast news bulletins or not) from playing a simple and inexpensive media role, by providing through its usual entertaining programs such sorts of simple information that would be of an interest to the whole nation in an informal and smooth way, ensure it would be reachable for all sorts of people. This may be the minimal media role radio stations can do for people, and this is for sure a responsibility for those radio stations against the airwaves they broadcast in.

Of course, the impact of having Jordanian radio stations covering different regions across the kingdom is much reflected on the reliability of the local media and dependency of people to obtain their information from the Jordanian media instead of neighboring countries media, and therefore gives an impact on the delivery of direct information concerning the citizens of these areas.

We might be now in a good situation as far as radio coverage is concerned in comparison with several years back, that is, as Radio Fann FM is covering all areas in Jordan throughout 11 radio frequencies, and is even covering more areas that the official state-owned Radio Jordan stations across the FM dial. Which puts on Fann FM - owned the Jordanian armed forces – big responsibility in serving the people in areas where no other radio stations reach, especially areas like Al-Karak , Al-Azraq, and Al Ruweished to the East from Mafraq.

Before this revolution on the airwaves, there were many areas across the Kingdom, especially border areas, whose residents used to depend on radio stations from neighboring countries. One good example is Irbid in the North,as at the time there were no jordanian radio stations covering that region, while southern Lebanon was occupied and no FM radio stations were available in Syria, so the only option for the residents of that area was Radio Israel Arabic service, as well as some of the Arab Israelis owned radio stations. This was for sure a case that is not to be accepted neither by officials nor the public. and although Jordanian radio station's frequencies has increased and reached over 15 in irbid area, those compete now with many radio stations from the neighboring three countries.

This issue of having Jordanian radio stations covering jordan and having them as a primary source of information for Jordanians across jordan may require efforts from both the AVC and TRC, to encourage opening radio stations in various regions of the country especially border area, be it local radio stations or frequencies for Jordanian radio stations broadcasting in other areas of the country.

Also, planning frequencies with neighboring countries should be a high responsibility for both the AVC and TRC, especially with regard to radios from neighboring countries broadcasting through the depth of Jordanian territories, and beyond the border areas, such as the Saudi Quran Radio broadcasting on 91.7 FM and covering wide areas that reach even to Jerash and Ajloun areas, and the official Syrian radio stations that reach even to the capital Amman on several frequencies such as 100.9 FM and 92.6 FM affecting even some Jordanian radio station's broadcasting in northern jordan (Watan FM on 92.7 FM), and the capital (Radio Al-Balad 92.4 FM)

Radio Guide Update: Jordan University Radio on 94.9 FM

Jordan University Radio started its test transmission on 94.9 FM covering Amman Greater Area.

The Radio station, which will be more of a cultural-political "students radio", will be starting officially soon, and the moment of writing this post, only Classic Music is being aired on its airwaves.

Radio Guide Update: Sawt Al-Karak on 91.3 FM

Two days ago, Sawt Al-Karak, which is Mutah University's Radio, started its test broadcasting on 91.3 FM for the Karak region.

The local radio station, owned by the university, will be more of a community radio for Al-Karak region, which misses any other radio station on its airwaves except for Fann FM. and is scheduled to officially launch its programs soon during May.

My Radio Segment, Episode 11

This episode is available for download HERE, and for listening on the listen icon.

This episode, aired on March 23rd (sorry for the late publishing), was mainly oriented towards reviewing what was on the Jordanian airwaves in the previous period, in which i had more specific subjects to talk about in my radio segment.

Starting from radio Ayyam FM. Where the radio comedian Nadeem Sarraj, famous for quite a while now for his comedy character "Rajee Dwara" in the funny sketches of “Nakshet Mokh” on Mazaj FM, Nadeem now became part of Ayyam FM's airwaves starting mid February 2009, with a new radio comedy show entitled "Etla3 Men Rasee" and with a new character names "Dr Refa'at" doing phone pranks with all sorts of people.

On March 1st, Radio Jordan Broadcasting celebrated its 50th anniversary, of launching Radio Jordan Broadcasting from its current location in Um Alhairan. Although the history of Radio Jordan goes back to 1948 when it was located in Ramallah, and this was declared officially by the Jordanian Parliament to be the official Jordanian radio station in 1950. while the radio presence in Amman wasn't until 1956 when a subsidiary station was opened in Amman under the name of "Radio Amman" and used to broadcast for no more than 8 hours a day from a building in Jabal Al - Hussein. However, the launch from Um Alhairan in 1959 was the point of switch to Radio Jordan to the concept of modern state radio, as it had their an independent modern building equipped with several studios, sound engineering rooms, news editing rooms.. etc , in addition to the co-opening of a broadcasting antenna and station in the area near Naour bridge. Radio Jordan Broadcasting is of course still evolving, and currently operates several radio stations as well as several radio frequencies, which are not limited to the FM frequencies we might know throughout Jordan, but with also several frequencies via which Radio Jordan broadcasts through the short waves, enabling it to reach all around the world from Al-Harraneh Antenna station near Queen Alia Airport.

Also on the 1st March, the cold wave that brought in snow to the kingdom, had its effect on the radio programming as well, but unfortunately, not on all the radio stations. Many radio station didn't give attention at all even to it, like if they are broadcasting in another country!!!! On the contrary were Radio Fann FM (which even postponed a prepared subject for that days episode of Al-Wakeel's morning show) , Amen FM (which of course kept following up the situation of all the roads in the kingdom with up to date information), and Play FM, which had a good interaction with the listeners about it, and was even announcing for example the universities that had stopped their lectures for that day or postponed them like other radio stations.

Moving to 4 March 2009, when we have witnessed across the Jordanian airwaves a nice experience of unifying two stations broadcasts, that are, Radio Al-balad, and Radio Arabisc in Damascus, through a joint program speaking about therapist tourism of both countries and with the participation of radio announcers from both station in a live broadcasting. This program will continue on monthly basis on both stations, on the first Wednesday of every month at 10 PM.

Also, starting earlier this month, with the announcement of HM Queen Rania's initiative of "Ahel Al-Himmeh", we started listening to announcements and promotions of this initiative through the airwaves of all radio stations. This for sure demonstrates the importance of the radio media sector, and its power of reaching the message directly and smoothly to all sorts of people where-ever they are. [The Promotion attached]

Of course, we can't wrap this review, without reviewing what we had on the Jordanian airwaves for mother's day, which was more of a “Mother's week” on the Jordanian radio stations, due to their huge interaction with this occasion over an entire week. This started with Radio Sawt alghad, which held a big festive event & contest starting Friday 13-3-2009 over 3 consecutive days in City Mall. The contest was in a form of a race between the mothers in performing home work cleaning, and with the participation of several sponsors and companies who had gifts for the participating mothers. Sawt Al-Ghad didn't stop there, as it had quite a big concentration on this occasion throughout its programs across that week, as well as on most of the radio stations, that came up with all sorts of prizes and contests for this occasion, with gifts reaching even to the value of 1000 JDs like we had on Energy FM.

Also, several radio stations had special programs that went on their airwaves for this occasion, and even on mother's day it self, Saturday 21-3-2009, as we had on Watan FM, Ayyam FM, and Radio Jordan English Service.

But maybe, the most notable special show, was the special episode from Al-Wakeel's morning show on Radio Fann FM, aired on Thursday 19-3-2009 and replayed on Saturday. The show was more of an emotional and humanitarian one, as the the program's team had researched and investigated to host 10 mothers that have been, and still, struggle in this life as mothers to cope with their difficult lives with their families and children. The show presenter Mohammad Al-Wakeel reviewed their cases on the air and rewarded them on this occasion. In addition of course to the usual interaction from individuals and different institutes for their cases. [Different segments recordings from the show attached].
Radio Sawt Al-Madina also had a special program for this occasion during mother's day, but was quite a different one, as it was hosted by the guys from "3alarasi.com" , which we have been hearing a lot lately on Sawt Al-Madina, making it more of a comedy and funny show on this occasion, as one of their mothers was also co-hosting the show with them, and had a nice interactive touch on the show.

Last but not least, Spin Jordan had showed again its creativity and high quality of production on this occasion, as it had a small nice, comic, and yet realistic promotion on this occasion playing on its airwaves all over the week. [Promotion attached].

Earth Hour in Jordan, the unclear message!

Lights off,AC off,Laptop on Battery mode, just the network line in to work and listen to the rockout on Spin Jordan :D .. its Earth Hour!

This is the way i contributed for the past 60 minutes for Earth Hours 2009 while being at work in a dark 4 walls no windows room in which i'm writing this at the moment.. Earth Hour 2009 in which Jordan had participated this year, with lights going off in several main streets, like: Gardens, Thaqafe, Mecca Street, Zahran, Istiklal, Queen Alia, and others. As well as all the main squares in the capital Amman, and all the official governmental offices & ministries (which are already closed at this time, especially in a weekend!). In addition to a candles walk toward wild jordan in Jabal Amman...all backed by the Ministry of Environment and the GAM.

So fine so far, but the unfine thing, is how much propaganda people do about it and about the objectives behind that...! from what i've seen until now and witnessed, i officially declare that the objectives of this initiative didn't reach for most Jordanians, particularly ammanites in my witnesses case!!!!

That is, because i, as well as several colleagues of mine, we have witnessed a lot of people chitchating on the street, even just minutes before earlier around 8 PM, that all the government will CUT OFF the electricity today at 8.30 PM in the whole Amman!!! this is what people got from it! Yes! Without caring to know why, what, how! Or even if they got the message correctly!

That even included the guys in the company in which i work, and whom have sent an IT Department guy to turn off all our severs resources!!!! until we have convinced him not to! After we cleared out the message to him and his manager via phone.


Now thats a big question mark! Is the mass media in our country weak enough, or are the people just propagandists, or both!!! in all cases, this is something that needs to be solved!


Anyway, more about earth hour from fellow jordanian bloggers:
Naseem Tarawneh
Farah Nimri
Eman

Jordanian Radio Ratings 2008 - My Radio Segment Episode,Episode 10

This week's episode is available for download HERE, and for listening on the listen icon.

This week's radio segment tackled IREX Jordan's Media survey, and particularly the Radio Section of the survey about Jordan Radio Ratings for the year 2008.

I have tackled in a post last year this time IREX Jordan's survey for the Jordanian Radio Ratings for the year 2007.

1st of all, to make things clear, the study considers to survey results:
Listenership for a period of 30 days from the survey: This would show the general listenership for radio, and what the surveyed had listened to within month.
Listenership for a period of 1 days prior to the survey: This would show the loyalty of listening to radio or to a specific radio station.



On the general level, and surprisingly, the radio listenership regardless of the station listened to, has DROPPED in 2008! regardless of the fact that the number of radio stations and frequencies covering the kingdom with radio transmission had increased! As 45.9% used to listen on daily basis to radio in 2007, the number has dropped to 43.7% only in 2008! and amazingly more, the big drop was in the youth of ages 15-29, from which less than 45.9% are listening to radio now, after the listenership percentage was 54.3% last year among them!

An almost 8.5% drop among the group mostly targeted on in our Jordanian radio stations. Are the Jordanian youth getting board of the copycats among Jordanian Radio Stations, where creativity seems to be stopping, and where most of the radio stations just trying to copy each other with a show or 2 on the air, and leave the rest to computers randomly shuffling music that you can heard on several other competitive radio station, or simply, pirated from the internet and played on your car radio or headset using an MP3 player, nothing more, nothing less.

Aren't Jordanian Radio stations thinking seriously about MP3 players, MP3 car modulators, Internet radio, and even TV and DVDs as competitors?! If they aren't then ... WRONG ANSWER! THINK AGAIN .... competition is not only about what other radio stations are playing or doing, and its not only about attracting another stations' listeners... its more over to getting those who don't listen to radio, never did, or quited doing so, back to listen to the airwaves through your radio station. Otherwise, we will just have 100 radio stations with 10% of the population listening to them! And out of a sudden we will have only 5 radio stations owned by the government on the airwaves after the rest of them get shut down! Not a happy ending in my imagination!

For the time being, the sector is still in a good shape, and the best in the Jordanian media scene with 67.8% of listenership within 30 days from the survey, much more exceeding newspapers (30.45%), magazines(8.45%).

The study included this year the way & place of listening to radio. One of the interesting things was that the study showed that just under 20% of the people listen to radio through Mobile phones that have FM receivers. The majority of those (over 60%) are youth, mostly school or university students, as this is their primary entertainment mean while being on the way from and to their universities/schools, or between the classes. On the other hand, listening to Jordanian radio stations via the internet didn't exceed 6.6%, as online broadcasting is more used by Jordanian abroad that jordnaians in jordan who can receive the stations via the FM. As for places where radio is mostly listen to, home was the biggest rate with 55.2% (with a big rate of house wives) followed by cars with just under 35%, at work 7.6% and 2.6% while moving by bus.

Before starting to review the radio ratings. And since there has been some debate about this study with regards to the written media and online media. And from my own point of view, i don't have any comments on it as far as the results are concerned, and i think the results show up a real view for the situation of the Jordanian airwaves. But i rather have some comments related to the “Radio Industry knowledge”!

1st of all, The study, or the people behind it, seem to have forgotten some radio stations! Sunny 105.1 FM wasn't mentioned though it was 7 months old at the time of the survey, nor Hawa Amman Radio (The GAM's radio) which has been on air for the same period. Also, both Yarmouk FM and Sawt New Maan weren't either mentioned nor given a rate though the study covered all Jordanian cities including Maan and Irbid! Even if some of those radio stations would have got 0.0% (which is impossible I guess!), they should have been mentioned with this result..

Also, the names of some radio stations or frequencies got some mistakes, just like Radio Al-Balad, which is still mentioned in the study as AmmanNet FM, and Sawt Al-Madina, whose frequency is 88.7 FM and not 88.5 FM (which was just a testing frequency before the official lunch of the station).

And not to forget, the stations belonging to Radio Jordan Broadcasting Corporation are a bit messed up. So apart from Amman FM, The Main Program is put in the survey as Jordan AM and Jordan FM 88 Mhz, which is actually the same radio station (as the main program), and it has AM frequencies as well as FM frequencies, and the FM frequencies in Amman for the Main Program of Radio Jordan Broadcasting has been changed to 90.0 FM and 106.7 FM for over a year now, and Amman FM is being broadcasted on 88.0 FM as 99.0 FM.

Anyway, here are the rating results according to the survey. Followed by some of my comments on them.

Radio Ratings Results for a period of 30 days from the survey:
1.Fann FM (49.5 %)
2.Quran Radio (44.9 % )
3.Amman FM (31.4 %)
4.Radio Amen FM (25.9 %)
5.Radio Rotana (25.3 %)
6.Hayat FM (18.0 %)
7.Radio Jordan Broadcasting – The Main Program (17.8 %)
8.Mazaj FM (14.5 %)
9.Sawt Al-Ghad (8.4 %)
10.Melody FM (7.5 %)
11.Watan FM (7.5 %)
12.Radio Sawt Al-Madina (5.2 %)
13.Radio Jordan English Service - 96.3 FM (3.1 %)
14.Radio Al-Balad (3.1 %)
15.Radio Farah Al-Nas (2.9 %)
16.Radio Jordan Broadcasting, The Main Program, through the FM (2.6 %)
17.Ayyam FM (2.4 %)
18.Mood FM (1.8 %)
19.Play FM (1.8 %)
20.Ahlen FM (1.8 %)
21.Beat FM (1.6 %)
22.Energy FM (0.9 %)
23.Spin FM (0.8 %)



Radio Ratings Results for the day prior to the survey: (Loyalty Ratings)
1.Fann FM (23.1 %)
2.Quran Radio (19.7 % )
3.Radio Amen FM (9.5 %)
4.Radio Rotana (9.3 %)
5.Amman FM (9.1 %)
6.Radio Jordan Broadcasting – The Main Program (7.0 %)
7.Hayat FM (5.1 %)
8.Mazaj FM (4.9 %)
9.Melody FM (2.1 %)
10.Radio Sawt Al-Madina (1.9 %)
11.Watan FM (1.8 %)
12.Radio Sawt Al-Madina (1.3 %)
13.Radio Jordan English Service - 96.3 FM (1.3 %)
14.Radio Jordan Broadcasting, The Main Program, through the FM (1.0 %)
15.Radio Al-Balad (0.8 %)
16.Radio Farah Al-Nas (0.8 %)
17.Play FM (0.8 %)
18.Beat FM (0.8 %)
19.Ayyam FM (0.7 %)
20.Mood FM (0.6 %)
21.Energy FM (0.5 %)
22.Spin FM (0.4 %)
23.Ahlen FM (0.4 %)


Fann FM is still on TOP! And is still getting advantage of the full coverage through its 11 frequencies to beat even the official state owned radio station. And Quran FM (with all its 3 local frequencies) is still second, regardless of the fact that Hayat FM (the only private religious radio) is trying to attract many listeners with its variety religious programs along with quran and ad'ieah, but despite the fact Hayat FM's listenership increased, its still less the quarter from Quran FM.

With a big increase from last year, Radio Amen FM is pretty notable now on the scene, the good programming according to the station's objectives, as well as the opening of 2 new frequencies were much of a help in having this big rating. And all of us know how much this station is famous against the taxi and bus drivers, since its becoming their road assistant on the ways around jordan.

The Jordanian Broadcasting Corporation's radio stations are still in a good shape. So Amman FM for example is still a big competitor against commercial FM stations. And Radio Jordan Broadcasting – The Main Program is still with the same ratings from last year (when adding both FM and AM ratings), and is still doing pretty well in the early morning hours.

On the other hand, when looking at English speaking / western music radio stations, we can notice how low ratings they have, despite all the competition they have between them, but even Radio Jordan – English Service is doing better than them with way too much! Yes! 4 CHR radios and 2 AC Radios as well as Ahlen FM (which went off earlier this year), couldn't any of them get even close enough to RJ 96.3 FM. This might show that the re-programming and re-orientation of Radio Jordan English Service was much of a good step (though its not yet as complete as it should be). But! There you go! They have beaten our fancy CHR radios! And is doing even better than some Arabic radio station.

But Anyway, those commercial english speaking radio stations are doing much better this year than the year before, even with double or more than last year's ratings on the “loyalty rating scale”. Which might mean that those stations are attracting people either from those listening to Arabic stations or from totally non-radio fan people to listen to them. Which is pretty good!

Play FM and Beat FM are competing hardly on top of the CHR radio rating when it comes to daily listeners to them, and they have even beaten Mood FM, which was beating both of them last year. But an interesting observation is that Ahlen FM had as high monthly rating as Play and Mood FM! And was doing pretty much well to shutdown several weeks ago!!! though it didn't had that much loyal listeners.

Taking a look over the ratings of the stations lunched in 2008 (& mentioned in the survey) for a period of 30 days prior (since you can't judge they have gathered enough loyal listeners, especially that some of them were lunched just 2 months before the survey) . [Farah Al-Nas, Ayyam FM, Energy FM, Spin FM] ... I consider them doing pretty good! And with good potentials to raise to better ratings during 2009.

Another interesting chart that can be found in the survey is this ...

You can just see how the pattern of attracting listeners change along the day.
Notice how Radio Jordan Broadcasting – Main Service and Fann FM are attracting most of their listeners in the morning. And how during housewives peak listenership stations that have shows in those times like Amman FM, Hayat FM, Quran Radio, Sawt Al-Ghad are attracting this type of listeners who are making more than half of the listeners at this time in the day. (a good re-thinking point for those stations thinking they are attracting housewives and females in generals, while having the 10 AM – 3 PM time slot empty!). Notice also how the changes in the evening hours (the preferred listening hours for youth according to this survey, as over 43-51% from the listeners after 6 PM are under 24!) turn to be concentrated on Melody, Sawt Al-Ghad and Mazaj FM. Yet another message for the stations trying to attract youth, and with empty programming or “let the computer shuffle the music” after 6 PM policies ... while those times are mainly considered study times for students in schools or on campus, those times are preferred by them for listening to the radio. Things get interesting enough when seeing in this survey that those 3 stations for example are doing better in the overnight period (9 PM – 6 AM) than the drive back period (in which 2 of them have extensively famous shows! ).

My Radio Segment, Episode 9

This week's episode is available for download HERE, and for listening on the listen icon.

Just like last week, this week's episode continued the review of Jordanian radio station's websites.

We Start this week from the radio stations that provide celebrity news and all sort of gossip and light news through their website, Sawt El-Ghad's website (www.sawtelghad.fm ) provides up to date celebrity news for its visitors, pretty similar to its “Al-Ghad news” that goes through its airwaves. That is, along with pretty good content about the station, its programs and radio announcers, throughout a nice and simple website. Maybe the only bad thing about it is the similarity of the URL address with Sawt El-Ghad lebanon, whose website is (www.sawtelghad.com ).

On the other side, Radio Sawt Al-Madina had tried, after a while of having its website not updated, to remake the website, and add a section for the celebrity news and gossip, along with the details about the radio station and its programs, as well as introduce a new address leading to it, that is (www.887.fm). But unfortunately, seems the dynamicity of Sawt Al-Madina and its programs on the airwaves do not match the dynamicity of its website, as the website hasn't been updated since it was redeveloped.

Whilst, news and gossip content are not that much updated either through Ayyam FM's website (www.ayyamfm.jo), whose design and colors are pretty much compatible with the station's logo, and the website do still has a lot of empty pages, and even some with rubbish characters in it. But the transmission throughout the website is of a very high 128 kpbs quality, and it can be heard for the user without the need of having any special software or codics installed on that client's machine as most of the other radio station's transmissions, since it's being done using the Flash technology from within the user's browser.

Same broadcasting technology is being used by the sister radio station, Spin FM through its website(www.spin.jo), the website is also pretty similar to Ayyam FM's in the layout, but when it comes to content, Spin FM's website is very rich and regularly updated with all sorts of news and gossip, and even some internal affair news that can be political (alrabie demonstrations during the last attack on gaza are an example). That is, along with a detailed description about the station, its programs, radio announcers and DJs, as well as an up to date review of the latest music albums, movies, video games. And even a list of the latest music that is being aired on Spin FM's airwaves that can be listened to through the website and rated, and Spin FM truly increases or decreases the frequency of airplay for those songs depending on the rating done by its listeners through the website. And not to forget that the website provides a way to communicate with the DJ being on duty at the moment and request a song from him/her. But maybe the only annoying thing is the website's font inconsistency in a lot of its pages, the visitor can even find several types and sizes of fonts within the same page!

The visitor of Play FM's website, www.play.jo, wil be also able to listen to some of the latest music that is being played on its airwaves. The website is very neat and all its sections are updated continuously, from weather to the events calendar. And the fact that Play FM has a blog in its website is also a big plus, and a one of a kind way (between the Jordanian radio stations) of communicating with the station's listeners, especially throughout the ability to comment on the posts, as its the only station the has a blog in jordan, as well as the only one that has a youtube channel. And the interaction would have been even higher if the blog was assisted by an RSS feed as well.

Rich and regularly updated content, ranging from celebrity news to the latest releases in music and movies, as well as a very nice and compliant website design with the station's logo can be found in Beat FM's website (www.mybeat.fm). The website is indeed an addition to the competency between those 3 lately mentioned CHR radio stations, which seem to have extended the competition between them beyond the FM airwaves over to the web as well, leaving behind all the other Arabic radio stations.

Mood FM as well has a nice website and up to this competency i've mentioned earlier, and one that can be even modified by the user according to his preferences, all of this can be found on www.mood.fm, along with the possibility to know the song and singer of the track currently played on the airwaves of mood fm, that is in addition to several pages that include the latest releases, variety news, and the possibility to contact the current DJ and request a song.

Mazaj FM's website is also capable of showing its visitor the song and singer of the current track, but this is probably the only thing working in the website, www.mazajfm.com ... the website is very old and completely out of date, but fortunately, it has a forum through which one can register and discuss several issues, being the only website with a forum in it.

Hayat FM's website, www.hayat.fm is on the other hand very regular and has enough useful content about the station and its programs, in addition to the live broadcasting.

On the contrary, we find Radio Farah Al-nas's website, www.farahalnas.jo, it only has the station's logo, and indication that the website is still under construction, and the live broadcasting starts up along with the website, which can be very annoying for the users.

Amen FM's website (www.amenfm.jo) as well is still under construction, as all its sections are disabled, but it seems that there is a plan to have several useful pages and services through the website when its development will end, that is, in addition to the live broadcasting link.

Last but not least, Yarmouk FM, Sawt Maan Al-Jadeeda, and Hawa Amman Radio do not have websites. The links in Yarmouk University and King Hussein University website for Yarmouk FM, Sawt Maan Al-Jadeeda respectively lead the user to a brochure about the station. While the link for Hawa Amman Radio in the GAM's website lead to the live broadcasting streaming.

As you might have mentioned, i excluded from this review the websites of non Jordanian radio broadcasting in jordan, namely BBC Arabic and their website (www.bbcarabic.com) and RMC international and their website (www.rmc-mo.com). As those are very rich and powerful websites in both content and structure, and no Jordanian websites are to be compared to them, except maybe for Radio al-balad's.

Its also interesting to mention that most of the websites don't belong to the .jo domain, for reasons that i personally don't know, but indeed the complexity and extensive costs of getting a .jo domain are indeed part of that.


This week, tomorrow that is, there will be no episode, but next Monday March the 16th , i will be reviewing IREX Jordan's media survey, and review the Jordanian Radio Station's 2008 rating results.