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.

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)

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].

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.

My Radio Segment, Episode 8

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

This week's episode (Actually last week's, as i have published this on my blog late enough that i'm already recording the 9th episode now!), as well as next week's episode (tomorrow's) will discuss the web sites of radio stations broadcasting over the Jordanian airwaves. Since the radio industry is going these days beyond the limitations of the airwaves over the FM dial, for a world with larger potentials and competition over the world wide web. That is, since on the internet there are thousands or tens of thousands of radio stations in various languages, broadcasting various genres of music and topics, from all around the world. And most of these stations do not broadcast over the airwaves, and behind them stand individuals and not companies or institutions, as with limited and simple costs, and with creative ideas and some technicalities, anyone can establish an Internet radio station and website.

Radio stations benefit from their presence on the Internet. As along with broadcasting across the network to have anyone around the world being able to listen to the station, the radio station's website is an important mean of communication between the Radio and its listeners, and can be considered a primary information reference about the station's programs and broadcasting times, and even the content of these programs. Broadcasters can also exploit their websites to provide additional added services to listeners. And even supply content that it cannot or is not licensed to be provided through the airwaves.


For the Jordanian radio stations, Radio Al-Balad may be considered a model and probably the most sophisticated radio with presence over the Internet. This is due to the fact that the radio started broadcasting the Internet through (www.ammannet.net) with the name of AmmanNet before even granting radio broadcasting licenses in jordan for private Jordanian radio stations. And continued developing its website even after starting broadcasting on the FM airwaves, and even after changing the name to Radio Al-Balad.

Radio Al-Balad provides through its website www.ammannet.net archived episodes of all its programs as well as all the news reports, in both text and recorded format. In addition to detailed live news content, and the possibility to comment on these news and programs. The site also provides a number of blogs for several of its own radio announcers, where they express their views and lives. But the only thing that might be disturbing, is the current difference between the radio naming “Radio Al-Balad” after changing its name, and the website that remained as it is when it comes to the URL through which it's accessed.


The Jordanian Broadcasting Corporation and in all divisions, Vemoqaha site is part of the Radio and Television www.jrtv.jo and more overlap with the location of the Jordanian state television. And most of the pages and links, although I have said it before, either empty or contain outdated information.

The Radio Fann FM on the other hand has a simple but nice website, in which details about its radio programs and communicating with them. But the site is relatively old, as we can find details about programs that went off the air for nearly two years now. Radio Fann FM is a pioneer in broadcasting, as it was until not so long the only Jordanian station broadcasting with a sound quality of 128 Kbps, and one that matches the sound on the FM band, the website www.radiofann.com also offers the ability to watch the radio announcers and DJs working in the studio Live through the web camera installed in their studios.

The same technique of broadcasting using a web cam can be found on Radio Rotana's website. Which is actually part of the Rotana network website www.rotana.net, making it hard to access the radio station's website directly, which contains information and details about all the network's radio stations and not only Radio Rotana Jordan. But choosing Rotana Jordan in the transmission section will enable the user to listen live through several techniques, whether with different degrees of sound quality, or through the webcams from the station's studios.

The Web Cam technology is also available to listeners of Energy FM, which is managed and operated by the same company, Al-Kawn Media. Through the website www.radioenergy.fm, but the site is currently empty and has been under construction for more than 10 months now, the age of the site and the radio station, and the user will not find more than the station's logo on the homepage in addition to the transmission link.

The same situation will face the browser of Sunny FM's website, www.sunny.jo The site is also limited to a home page containing the station's logo and a link to listen to the live broadcasting.

Last but not least, Watan FM has a website (www.watanonline.net) that is somehow confusing for the visitor, it still includes old pages with old information about the station and its programs, which radically changed since awhile after the station's radio programs were changes, especially after the news that the owners of the station have changed. At the same time, new information about the new programs can also be found in the site along with the old ones, and not to forget, there are several empty pages and inactive links.

The remaining radio stations' websites review will follow, in this week's episode.

Remember that you can contribute too, and send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

My Radio Segment, Episode 7

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

I was kind of confused whether to cover what most of the Jordanian Radio stations had done on the occasion of the Valentine's day during the past week, as most of them had huge notable interaction with the occasion throughout competitions and prices, special show and special segments within usual shows for this occasion, and even the variety of music was carefully selected for this occasion. But, I canceled all my plans to talk about this as i heard Sawt Al-Madina's “Anti Valentine Show” on the valentine day it self, Saturday the 14th of February 2009, with which Radio Sawt Al-Madina broke the rules with this show which was prepared and presented by Muhannad Al-Shahwan along with the guys behind the comedian comics website, 3alarasi.com, the show discussed in a comedian way the idea of celebrating this occasion, and interacted with people about it, who in return had huge interaction with the show in away that even lead to extend the 2 hours proposed for the show. [sound recording attached]

On the sector's news, Virgin Radio officially started campaigning for its radio station in Jordan. After over a year of rumors about Virgin Radio getting into the sector in Jordan, they finally did show it for the public, through a store that it seems to have rented at City Mall Amman, that is being prepared for something we don't know yet, and has on its facade the logo of the station, and a statement that Virgin Radio Jordan is coming soon on the airwaves.
What Virgin seems to do, is what i have talked about a couple of episodes ago, that is, a radio shop to intercommunicate with its listeners and attract the public to it.

For the people into Rock Music, from now on they will be able to choose and decide! As we are having more rock shows in town! After long years of exclusivity in playing this genre of music only on the airwaves of Radio Jordan's English Service, whose Rock Show was even put on hold several times due to unknown reasons, with gossips relating it to several law breaking incidents for people taking some sorts of Rock Music as a sign for their illegal actions. This entire exclusivity has broke up last year with Beat FM's Rock N Jordan, and now with Spin FM's new rock show that airs on Saturdays 7 – 10 PM.

From time to time, I will be introducing you to one of the radio stations on the Jordanian airwaves within my segment. And since we had kind of started this already a couple of weeks ago when we have talked about Melody FM Jordan, when I have spoken to its CEO, this we week i talked about Radio Sawt Al-Madina.

Sawt Al-Madina, owned by Al-Baddad Holding Group, started its test transmission in March 2007 on 88.5 FM, and later in April of the same year lunched its transmission officially on the frequency of 88.7 FM in the Greater Amman Area. After Al-Baddad group had already started its way in the media field with a weekly free newspaper. The group is also planning to lunch a radio and TV production company, as well as package of TV stations.

The station got its license from the AVC as a political , conversational, and entertainment radio station, targeting with that all sorts of people, starting from Youth and students, to women and business men, and Families in general. As this station is known for its dynamism and variety in its shows, and for depending on the strategy of show-audience-targets rather than having a station-audience-target. Thus, beside hour by hour news, as well as political debates and reports and special news coverages, the station has various sets of programs with different targets, and a big variety in them, their objectives, scopes, and even music. And we can even hear some western hit music in some the shows, something that is not that usual on similar Arabic stations in the Jordanian airwaves.

Last but not least, its worth mentioning the radio Sawt Al-Madina broadcasts through its frequency 88.7 FM for the areas of the Greater Amman Area, Zarqa, Salt, and Madaba. The strong transmission also reaches to regions in Karak, Jerash, and Mafraq.


Remember that you can contribute too, and send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

and note that this segment is being replayed Wednesdays at 4 PM now, beside the basic airplay time, Mondays at 10.30 AM.

My Radio Segment, Episode 6

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

As promised in a previous episode, this episode will be widely take into consideration the Universities radio stations, but before that, here's what we had on the Jordanian airwaves during the past week:

We start from several activities by a couple of Jordanian radio stations to support the people of Gaza. Mazaj FM's event, which was a political-comedy play by a group of Palestinian artists entitled “Gaza – Ramallah” was held last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 5,6, & respectively 7 February 2009, and had the revenues of this event collected for Gaza through “Tkyet Um Ali” foundation's campaign. & Mazaj FM had promotions for this event for the entire week on its airwaves. Another event is Sunny FM's poetry night with the Palestinian poet, Suhair Hammad, that is to be held on February 17th. This is the 2nd activity for Modern Media Co after the successful one held by Play 99.6 for this cause, and which was mentioned in several episodes of this segment [event announcement recording attached].

On the Jordanian Airwaves, Friday 6-2-2009 was probably the most notable one on the Jordanian airwaves with having the Tawjihi results being announced. Despite the fact that Friday is not a day with on air shows for most of the radio stations.

Starting from Friday morning, where the tawjihi results topic was all over Radio Amman FM's shows, even the sports show being aired in the morning, and the interaction followed on all the next shows on its airwaves. Same case was on Radio Jordan – English Service, whose famous show “Listener's Choice” had also a high degree of interaction on this occasion in a funny and a joyful style. Hayat FM on the other hand had a special show on its airwaves in the afternoon of that day for receiving the phone calls and greeting of listeners celebrating the occasion, the presenter of the show was also mentioning from time to time during the show positive & kind suggestions to celebrate this occasion, instead of some bad habits that are being used to celebrate it. Similar suggestions were also discussed by the presenters of “The Boring Show” on Ayyam FM, but in a more comedy style, this topic had taken quite a big part of this show the usually has no certain topic to talk about. And the day ended with “Shabab 3al FM” on Radio Al-Balad, that had a big rate of interaction and phone calls and greetings on this occasion.

Starting Sunday 8-2-2009, a new guidance radio segment started on Amen FM for the school students, the segment presented by the Jordanian comedian “Hussein Tbeishat” aims to increase the traffic and pedestrian safety and awareness of school students, and is being aired on sundays, tuesdays, and thursdays at 7.50 AM on Amen FM, and through all schools morning announcement services in the regions covered by Amen FM's frequencies according to the agreement made with the ministry of education.

Getting into the week's main topic, talking about the Jordanian Universities radio stations and their role on campus and off campus in the surrounding community.

Currently, there are 2 working university radio stations, the 1st is “Radio New Ma'an – Voice of the south”, broadcasting from King Hussein Bin Talal's University in Ma'an ever since July 2006 on 90.3 FM, ever since there was only one station Jordanian FM station reaching Ma'ans area. While there are 3 stations aside Sawt Ma'an. About the station and its role, i had spoken with mr Basem Twesee, chief of research and society development center in King Hussein's university. Who had stated that this radio station is more of a community radio that a university radio, as its main objective is oriented towards the people of Maan and the local society, but the students are making a part of the radio station throughout specialized selection and training to be gradually more and more involved, and some are even professionals now. Radio New Ma'an is also not afraid of the competition, as Dr Basem thinks that getting more stations into the airwaves will even enrich and make their station more notable in the area due to its direct interaction with the public.
[the very interesting phone call recording attached]

The 2nd radio station of this kind to go on was Yarmouk FM, which started broadcasting for a couple of hours daily starting October 2006, and extended it broadcasting to 24/7 later in October 2007. This station's efforts come from the college of media and journalism in the university (ever since it was a dept part of another college), as most of the workers in it are students of this college. The role of this radio station also exceeded the limits of being a university radio station to being a community radio for the city of irbid and its people. Especially since there are another 15 radio stations that have working frequencies in Irbid or in Ajloun covering Irbid's area, thats beside 10s of radio stations being receipted from neighboring countries, making ibrid's airwaves one of the most jammed airwaves of the kingdom.

On the way also as mentioned in a previous episode are a couple of university radio stations that got broadcasting licenses, one is for Mutah University in Karak, a city that has only 1 radio station having a working frequency in it, that is, Fann FM on 94.3 FM, and also receives the broadcasting of several stations from their working frequencies in Amman, but in a mainly weak reception and a varying one depending on the area. The other one is University of Jordan, which will be competing on the ammani airwaves with 10s of radio stations of all kinds. On this radio station i have spoken to Dr Darweesh Badran, one of the people that are participating in establishing this radio station. Dr Badran has stated that the idea behind this stations was enriching the relation between the university and its students, as well as the university and the surrounding community, noting that this station will be a pure “students' radio station”, also, as Mr Badran answered on one of my questions, that the radio station can be one that would interact and represent students from other universities and colleges and not only UJ, as there are several universities and colleges in Amman, the area that this radio station will be covering. Last but not least, Dr Badran stated that they have already several suggestions for programs and cooperations offered to them from students as well as from people in the private sector for their radio station.
[phone call recording attached]

Its very obvious that university radio stations in jordan are taking away of being apart from each other, so we are not seeing one station based on cooperation between several radio stations, and not even partial cooperation, of having for example one radio station with one identity and license but with customized shows for each and every area.

One interesting notice is also that those radio stations are exceeding their university boundaries to be community radio stations. Having priorities and concentration on their community role.

Last but not least comes the observation that the private sector is not participating in investing or cooperating with those radio stations, like some big broadcasting corporation in some European countries that took the role of supporting students radio stations and investing in them in their countries.

Thanks to the guys at Modern Media Co, specifically Mrs Ghada Odeh for her cooperation. Remember that you can contribute too, and send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

and note that this segment is being replayed Wednesdays at 4 PM now, beside the basic airplay time, Mondays at 10.30 AM.

My Radio Segment, Episode 5

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

In this week's episode, i started with an overview of the radio stations interaction with the occasion of His Majesty, King Abdullah the 2nd's birthday.

Starting with Radio Jordan Broadcasting Corporation, which has covered this occasion through all of its working radio stations, the General Public Radio, The English Service, and Amman FM, with special segments talking about his majesty's life and achievements, as well as playing national songs, even during some periods and shows on the English service.

Radio Amen FM as well had special documentary shows for this occasion talking about his majesty's life, mixing those shows, which were mainly long with national music as usual on this station's airwaves.

A notable interaction also with this occasion was heard on Radio Sawt Al-Madina, this started on the Thursday, 29-1-2009's morning show with Dia'a Al-Awaishe, where she dedicated her morning show for this occasion, including interviews and discussions with citizens and personalities that had interacted with his majesty's achievements and development plans during the past years. This station has also dedicated the entire day of saturday 31-1-2009 for this occasion, entitling that as “King Abdullah the 2nd, The Human King”. That is beside a short 15 min documentary about his majesty's life, and broadcasting it during the past weekend.

On the other hand, Radio Fann FM, also had a notable interaction with this occasion, and as usual, Radio Fann had a contribution in a new national song prepared for this occasion, and broadcasting it exclusively before all the other stations, starting Al-Wakeel's Thursday morning show, 29-1-2009. a show that was also partially dedicated for this occasion. Also, Fann FM had a live broadcasting for the celebration made by Mecca Mall for this event.

Other than those above, mentions for this occasion were heard on Radio Hawa Amman, Radio Farah Al-Nas, Sawt Al-Ghad, Mazaj FM, Ayyam FM, and Spin Jordan. And there wasn't any notable mention or interaction on the other stations.


On the Sector's news this week, Hayat FM started broadcasting in Irbid on 94.7 FM, but it seems still on test broadcasting.

Amen FM (The Police Dept Radio Station) has opened a public interaction office in Salt, in the City Hall in particular, in a new step for interacting with its listeners and receiving their notes and observations to be tackled and broadcasted on the station's Airwaves. This way of interaction for radio stations throughout Radio Shops or Radio Kiosks is available in several countries abroad either by public service radio stations like Amen FM, or commercial radio stations even to increase the interactivity and closeness to the stations fans.

Also on the sector's news, a decision has been taken by the Prime Ministry on Thursday 29-1-2009, to refuse the license for Radio “Zahret El-Ghor”, a non-political/non-news community women-agricultural radio station offered by Daoud Kuttab Company, the owner of Radio Al-Balad. The decision wasn't attached with any reasons.


In this week's episode i was planning to discuss the radio stations on the Jordanian Airwaves that do not have any radio shows or interaction with their listeners. Or what i personally like to call, The Mute Radio Stations. And which were 3 stations on the Jordanian airwaves, Ahlen FM on 97.1 FM, Melody FM on 91.1 FM in Amman and 105.5 FM in Zarqa, and Nojoum FM on 93.7 FM.
But unfortunately, the closure of Radio Ahlen FM by the end of last week after over 3.5 years of non stop western music, and only several shows bought from American broadcasting companies, and didn't have any interaction with its listeners, nor any position in the advertisement market.

While Nojoum FM, broadcasting on 93.7 FM in Amman area, and which since it started in July 2007 until now didn't identify its name on its airwaves, but those of you who have an RDS radio can mention the radio station's name on your Radio screen. This station is owned by Al-Dawood group for trade and investment, and is still until now in a test transmission mode with non-stop Arabic music.

Melody FM which has been for over 2 years now on the Jordanian airwaves, and which play's the latest Arabic and western hits on its airwaves, and without having any notable shows on its airwaves, I have spoked on this subject and more with Mr Hadi Antar, CEO of the Jordanian Radio & TV Company – Melody Jordan. [phone call attached], who stated in this phone call that Melody FM will be very soon starting its live radio shows later this year and they are currently working on it. As well as the relation of their radio investment, which is also available in 2 another stations in Beirut and Syria, with their TV stations. The discussions also included a question of how are they interacting with their listeners and getting feedback from them since they still don't have any live shows or live means of communication with their listeners. Listen the show for the answers ;)


Remember that you can contribute too, and send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

and note that this segment is being replayed Wednesdays at 4 PM now, beside the basic airplay time, Mondays at 10.30 AM.

My Radio Segment, Episode 4

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

In this week's episode, i started with 2 worth-to-mention radio activities that made an obvious effort in supporting the people in Gaza, especially since i was talking last week about the CHR radios and the big rate of competition between them in all fields. The competition between them “human-wise” reached its peak this week, other than the regular calls for donations being aired on their airwaves.

The 1st one was Play 99.6's charity concert, Gaza Calling, featuring several Jordanian and Palestinian artists. Which was held on Saturday the 17-1-2009, and which i have told you about in details 2 weeks ago in my 2nd episode. The outcome of this charity concert was a successful 11,000 JD of donations, that went through the Jordan River Foundation's campaign for helping the people of Gaza. This one by Play 99.6 was probably the biggest campaign or act from any Jordanian radio station for supporting the people in Gaza, 11000 JD is really a success, and worths much more than a thousand news bulletin or a thousand hours of repeatable talking about Gaza, for its people and solving the conditions they have reached.

While the 2nd act was Spin Jordan's Musical Documentary about Gaza, which was aired on Tuesday 20-1-2009. Yes, a Musical Documentary, we might have never heard such a production on the Jordanian airwaves before.
This show was pretty well prepared and attractive, not only interesting in its way of discussing and tackling what happened in Gaza through Jordanian and Palestinian artists and their music discussing the situation out there, especially the Arabic & English rap and hip hop tracks they have created about this situation. But also in the notable quality of production. Its also worth mentioning that some of the artists featured in this documentary were featured in Play FM's charity concert.
The documentary included interviews and discussions with those artists, as well as tracks by them for this cause, and their opinion about how their music can affect this cause.

And maybe this is the 1st time we ever such a kind of Arabic revolutionary/national music, one in both Arabic and English, of the hip-hop style, on the Jordanian airwaves, on either Arabic or English speaking radio stations.

In the show, I have made a combination of about 6 minutes out of Spin's Documentary of 30 minutes, you can hear that by downloading the show and listening to it.

Back to what we heard on the Jordanian airwaves during last week.

On Radio Al-Balad, and during the evening news bulletin on Saturday 17-1-2009, the microphone fell down in the middle of the bulletin on the airwaves, which was presented by colleagues Hamze Soud and Dana Jebreel, which was Dana's 1st ever bulletin on the airwaves even. [sound clip attached].

Another troubler microphone was the one on Spin Jordan, on Tuesday 20-1-2009's morning show with Leena Ghanem, where she has forgotten her microphone ON and running without even lowering the level of its sound while playing a track after she finished talking. Apparently, Leena was talking on the phone with someone, and everything she was saying was going on the airwaves over the song, all of this, at 7.40 AM of that day.

Not only the microphones caused trouble on the airwaves last week, but broadcasting workstations too, as on Radio Farah Al-Nas on Thursday 22-1-2009, instead of having the jingle that was to announce Al-3aser (Afternoon) prayers in Amman Greater Area at 3 PM that day, another similar jingle announcing Al-Fajir (Dawn) Prayers went on the airwaves.

Last but not least, the results of the “Radio Stars Questionnaire” made by Addustour newspaper's youth section were announced in a special ceremony on Saturday 17-1-2009, and the results of this electronic voting campaign came as follows:
Best Jordanian Radio Stations:
1- Radio Fann FM
2- Radio Rotana
3- Radio Sawt Al-Ghad

Best Radio Show:
1- Besara7a with Al-Wakeel on Radio Fann
2- Wenta Mrawwe7, with Mazen Diab on Sawt Al-Ghad
3- 3a Daw El-2ama, with Omar Azzam on Watan FM
AND Shabab 3al FM with Hazem Thaljee on Radio Al-Balad.

Best Radio Announcer (Female):
1- Jessy Abu Faisal, Sawt Al-Ghad.
2- Dezereh Bsaibes, Radio Fann.
3- Randa Karadshe, Mazaj FM.

Best Radio Announcer (Male):
1- Mohammad Al-Wakeel, Radio Fann.
2- Necola Dagher, Radio Rotana. AND, Mazen Diab, Sawt Al-Ghad.
3- Esam Al-Omaree, Amen FM.

Remember that you can contribute too, and send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

and note that this segment is being replayed Wednesdays at 4 PM now, beside the basic airplay time, Mondays at 10.30 AM.

My Radio Segment, Episode 3

As promised, this Week's episode got some improvements (Production-Wise), as well as a discussion about CHR Stations in Jordan.

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

Here is what occurred on the airwaves during the past week:
Starting Tuesday 13-1-2009, the day when news were being spread the fake news of a shooting incident from the Jordanian side has occurred on an Israeli patrol in Wadi Araba. This news hit the radios first on Radio Al-Balad and Hayat FM around 9.30 AM, where Radio Al-Balad broadcasted it at the beginning of its news headlines at 9.30 as a brief news, and preferred not going into more discussion or details until getting more accurate information. While Hayat FM has allocated part of her morning show for this piece of news, and was broadcasting the details directly from Al-Jazeera TV, but tried in controlling the public's comments and interaction regarding it until having an official statement about it.
The Other news-broadcasting radio stations didn't broadcast it on its news bulletins until releasing the official statement from the head of the Jordanian Armed Forces, so we heard this statement 1st on Radio Amen FM and Radio Fann FM, which declined the roomer news, and then the statement followed to appear on the other radio stations, but everyone was broadcasting it like it is, and probably only Radio Al-Balad cared about broadcasting and reporting the series of actions.

In continuity to the public interaction with what's happening in Gaza, Wednesday the 14th's edition of the afternoon show on Mazaj FM, “3al tareeq”, discussed the calls for boycotting the US Products, brands, and restaurants, and the related activism lately in the occasion of what's going on in Gaza. This topic received a lot of feedback and interaction from the listeners throughout the phones calls, emails, and SMSes. And the show's host, Randa Karadshe, had a smart way of reacting among the callers trying to name some brands.
Also in this show, there has been a “minute of silence” on the airwaves of Mazaj FM, after one of the callers suggested that, and the other listeners as well as the show host reacted positively among the idea.

Last but not least, On Beat FM's morning show, “The Beat Breakfast”, on Wednesday the 14th, and while the show host was talking about computer viruses, it seems he got an attack by one of them on the air, causing him some trouble, that he managed to recover rapidly with high skills [recording attached].

As declared in last week's show, this week i'd be discussing CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio) stations in Jordan, also known as Hit Music stations.

This genre of stations that puts on its airwaves the latest western musical hits, was one of the 1st genres being developed on the Jordanian airwaves by private media companies. As Play 99.6 started broadcasting in 2004, followed right at the beginning of 2005 by Beat FM. That is until 2008, when we witnessed the opening of Energy FM and Spin Jordan. Having as a result, 4 CHR stations in Jordan, all targeting the young generation until the 30s in age. And most if not all the music being aired on their airwaves are western music in English, and the spoken language on their airwaves is also English, and its pretty rare to hear Arabic on their airwaves despite the fact that those are Jordanian Stations owned by Jordanian Companies, and most of the people working in them are Jordanian.

[Details about the station owners available in the episode's recording]

Those 4 CHR stations are hot on fire when it comes to competition, and much more than the ones between Arabic stations in the sector. A competition that starts from the latest music the play, but continues to shows, prizes, and all sort of creative events and campaigns that exceed the limits of the small studio from which they broadcast. That is obvious that much that one of those stations, Play 99.6, got an international reward back in 2007 from the NAB, gaining the international excellency broadcasting award from the NAB.

All of this, despite the fact that, according to statistics, those stations' ratings are the lowest in Jordan in general! But maybe because the people behind CHR stations are more “skilled” and “business-maniacs”, especially since some of them got international experiences. And because we are not really finding this competition in other radio genres in Jordan, nonetheless Arabic ones. The competition between them is so obvious.

I've did lately some monitoring for the airwaves of those stations and prepared a small study about whats going on their airwaves, with 2 sample time-frames, one PEAK time between 8-8.45 AM on a working day, during the morning shows, and one OFF PEAK, in a Saturday between 2-3 PM.

The study in details is available here

General findings of the study were as follows:

Play 99.6 is still the dominant when it comes to advertisements, with around 60% of the market, followed by Beat FM with around 30%. While no notable ads are being aired on the airwaves of the newer Energy FM and Spin FM, especially when there aren't live shows on the airwaves.

While when it comes to the music being played, and since CHR is all about hit music, the story is opposite! Because the new radio stations that opened in 2008, are notably winning! As they are trying to attract the listeners and getting a larger share in the market, Energy FM for example appeared according to this study to have 79% of its airplay consisting of fresh new music on, and no single track from what was monitored was from before 2008. While Spin FM had more variety in the music, as it featured older tracks as well, but with a high rate of fresh music, and with close percentages to those of Beat FM, which has a bigger concentration of fresh new music during peak hours. But Play 99.6 is not playing that much new music on its airwaves, as the percentage of fresh new music, according to the study, does not exceed 45%. Now some people in the sector have an opinion about that, that people are more likely willing to hear music that they know, more than the fresh new music. And maybe its a strategy from Play 99.6 to keep its listeners in this competition. Also, one notable thing, is that the only Jordanian track that went on the airwaves of the 4 radio stations was one on Play 99.6, and this stations is known for its support of local talents singing in English.

Last but not least, it was obvious that Beat FM and Play 99.6 are probably just the right balance when it comes to talking on the airwaves, and this shows the professionalism and high preparation of their shows' hosts. While during the 45 monitored minutes on Energy FM's morning show, there was 14.5 minutes of talk! Which is almost the third. On the other hand, Spin Jordan was the only station where the hosts speak Arabic from time to time, even though mixed in English, and they even have some jingles in Arabic playing on their airwaves [Recording attached].

Its worth mentioning by the end of this episode, that many thanks go for the guys at Beat FM, specifically Mr Raad Kawar, that has cooperated positively and supplied us with the Beat FM recording.

Remember that you can contribute too, and send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

and note that this segment is being replayed Wednesdays at 4 PM now, beside the basic airplay time, Mondays at 10.30 AM.

My Radio Segment, Episode 2

This week's episode is available for download HERE, and for listening on the listen icon. and Here are the contents of this episode:

The interactivity on the Jordanian airwaves with the crisis in Gaza has continued this week, without any major changes from the previous week.
Radio Jordan - English Service for example, has continued in broadcasting mellow and classical music, but in the periods when popular shows used to be on air, just like the program “Licenser's Choice” LC, the lines were open for the public to interact with the licenser's regarding whats happening in Gaza, also we have heard several times on the airwaves of this radio station, and at several times, even some Arabic revolutionary and national songs, which, unfortunately, were with quite bad sound quality.

On the other hand, all 3 radio stations operated by Seagulls Communication, specifically, Mazaj FM, Beat FM, and Mood FM, have started promoting for the Jordan River Foundation's campaign for helping the people in Gaza. That is, other than Aramex's campaign that I have mentioned and played in last week's episode. And which has been on most of the radio station's around, but unfortunately not all of them .... ! is it possible some radio stations asked for a charge for playing this announcement!

Play 99.6, is also organizing a music gig, for several Palestinian hiphop bands, that are known for their way musical way in tackling the Palestinian issues, as well as the Jordanian singer hummam ammari. The objective of this gig, as play is announcing is to donate all the money collected from the tickets for supporting people in gaza, also through the Jordan River foundation's campaign.

Play FM has is promoting for this event through its website, www.play.jo, and through several catchy promotions on its airwaves. But one of the interesting things is that I heard an announcement for this gig on Energy FM's “Morning Fix” show, mentioning the cause behind it, but definitely not that Play FM is organizing it. Also, on of the participating DJs in this gig is DJ Sout-u-Soura, who has a show on Beat FM. Despite the fact I didn't hear any announcements on Beat FM about this gig, but having Beat FM allowing one of their DJs in such an event organized by their competitor, Play FM, for such a cause and in such situations is indeed something out of the ordinary war of competition between those radio stations.

In the coverage of the public interaction with what's happening in Gaza, Radio Al-Balad has continued its “Quality” coverage, something that is said not only by me in this show, but Also by BBC Arabic, in their show “BBC Extra”, which dedicated part of this week's show about Radio Al-Balad's extra ordinary coverage for the crisis in gaza and the public interaction with it.

Last Friday, 9-1-2009, for example, Radio Al-Balad started a detailed Live coverage for the public activities and marches around town, and dedicated a big part of this coverage for the big demonstration in Rabieh, which started from a news bulletin that turned into a live coverage for over a couple of hours, and was objective enough to report the events at location through their representative, as well as a lot of phone calls with the media announcer of the anti-rebel police dept (Darak Forces), and other people and eye-witnesses at location, and even some reporters from other media outlets available on location. And thus had the responsibility to show the picture at location for the listeners neutrally as it is, and from all the point of view. That is beside covering other marches and demonstrations in other locations as well.

While Hayat FM for example, had a different kind of coverage on the same day, and was more political oriented, by only covering the speech ceremony held by the islamic brotherhood party, and there was no other coverage for other events. But, Hayat FM had held an event it self 1 day before, by organizing a demonstration for kids from their offices to the UNICEF offices in Tla3 Al-Ali area, and promoted for it through its airwaves.

On the sector news, both University of Jordan and Mutah University had each obtained a license from the AVC for having their own radio stations. Just like the radio stations already running in Yarmouk University and in Ma'an's King Hussein University. No further details yet about those radio stations, or their frequencies or programs, and i promise i will be dedicating an episode soon about those university radio stations.

With the beginning of 2009, i have mentioned some changes in the programs over the airwaves. Radio Al-Balad for example started a new shows grid, by doing some changes in some existing shows, like “3asrieh” which is now more politically oriented, and “Eye on Media” out of which this segment now takes part, along with 2 other segments on Newspapers and news-websites. As well as introducing several new shows, just like “Kolna Bne2dar”, “Kolna zai ba3ad”, “sport files”, a return for the program “7aggee”, “atheer al qawafi”, “Musica men el sharq”... and continuity for the regular other shows on the airwaves, and their interaction with the listener's.

Also, we got surprised on Sunday 4-1-2009 on Spin Jordan, which is just around 3 months old on the airwaves, with a reshuffle for the hosts of their shows, so that the morning show presenter “Tamer Bataineh” is now on the afternoon show called “The Zoo Crew”, and Lena Ghanem was moved from there to the morning show in return.

Beat FM, started airing a promo for its achievements in 2008, promising that the year 2009 will be as their motto, “Bigger, Better, Bolder”, but with no changes on the shows or any new shows, until now.

Also, seem Radio Sawt Al-Madina is planning some new stuff for the new year, but until now, i didn't hear anything but a comedy segment which Radio Sawt Al-Madina has co-produced with those from the comics website, 3alarasi.com


Last but not least, we heard some amusing stuff on the airwaves of Jordanian radios during the last week. On Saturday 3-1-2009 on Radio Al-Balad, specifically on the evening news and while talking on air through the phone to a certain individual, he started thanking Radio Sawt Al-Madina instead of Radio Al-Balad, while he was Live on the airwaves of Radio Al-Balad. (sound clip attached).

While on Energy FM's Morning Fix, those people behind the program, has introduced a new segment on Sunday 4-1-2009, which we actually used to hear it on Play 99.6 a while ago, by allowing school students and interacting with them speaking about their schools, classes or teachers on the airwaves. Unfortunately, seems those behind the idea has forgotten that currently, the schools are either in their med-year vacation, or just wrapping up the final exams.

Finally, on Play 99.6, also on the morning show, Lee McGrath has played us a song, The Script's latest – Break Even, claiming its new and will be big in 2009, and to remember where we heard it 1st .... while this track has been playing all over the other CHR radio stations for over a couple of months even! (sound clip attached)

Next week, hopefully, we will get to know more about CHR Radios in Jordan, and the definition of this format of Radio stations and a detailed discussion about them. So tune in next monday on 92.4 FM starting 10.30 AM, or through www.ammannet.net, for this and more.

Remember you can send in your comments, feedback and any radio observations on radio@ammannet.net

My Radio Segment, Episode 1

This is the 1st episode of My Radio segment within “Eye on Media” which is being aired on Radio Al-Balad 92.4 FM.

Excuse me for being kind of boring in my first episode, due to emotions as well as the flue, i will make sure it would get better on the next episodes.

For the 1st episode, i am discussing the interaction of Jordanian radio stations with the situation in Gaza, and here goes the details, noting that the audio recording for the show is available for listening on the green icon, and for download here. My Segment is by the end of the show:

Starting with Saturday the 27th of December 2008, one of the 1st days of the attack on Gaza. Radio Jordan Broadcasting Corporation stopped the transmission on Radio Amman FM on all its frequencies, and united its transmission with the Main Program of Radio Jordan Broadcasting. Where extensive coverage and news bulletins for the situation on Gaza was taking place on air. Also, Radio Jordan – English and French service stopped their regular programs, and was playing only soft and classical music, along with the regular news headlines and bulletins each and every hour.

On the other hand, Radio Al-Balad 92.4 had a continuous open wave coverage for the situation in Gaza, and was playing revolutionary national music. Hayat FM also had a continuous news coverage for the situation in Gaza, and had also a different coverage including interaction with different political and social personalities and their opinion on the situation, and even a phone call with his majesty's media adviser, Mr Ayman Al-Safadi. Also, one of the different things in Hayat FM's coverage was the fact it was announcing the places and times of demonstrations, a thing that points out the public interaction with this radio station among those activities.

And all the radio stations with news licenses where covering the situation, including the Arabic service of the BBC, which also had a continuous coverage for the event, and even on the headlines level at some stations, like Sawt Al-Madina, which had rapid, short, yet rich headlines covering the events in Gaza.

Staying on the same day, we have witnessed a strange case on Mazaj FM, which had its transmission going off between the hours of 6.30- 8.30 PM (approx). Some people thought it was an intension from Mazaj FM to stop the transmission because of what is going on in Gaza, but later i have received the information that the problem was just due to a failure in the fiber-optics connection between the studio and the transmission tower.

On Sunday,December 28th, the day has started in a different way with the morning shows on most of the radio stations around town, especially the popular morning show, “Besaraha with Al-Wakeel” on Radio Fann, which was involved pretty much with the situation in Gaza. This involvement on those shows also continued in the next days with the same rhythm.
Also on sunday, The Quran Radio – Irbid branch, broadcasted prayers and verses from the holy quran picked especially for this occasion to pray for the “shohada2” who passed away in Gaza, in the afternoon through the evening period.

An interaction with the situation also appeared from the radio stations mentioning their withdrawal from the new year's parties they were supporting and sponsoring. The 1st to announce this was Spin Jordan and Ayyam FM, which had also the parties they were supporting and sponsoring stopped after this withdrawal as well. Also, the Party held in Le Royal and sponsored by Fann FM was canceled on this occasion, and the only remaining party that continued as scheduled and kept sponsored by a radio station was Sawt Al-ghad's, which was held at the Holiday Inn. The issue of the new year's parties being canceled or not was also discussed Live on the airwaves of Hayat FM, and opened the airwaves for the public to interaction with this issue.

The stations in General promoted for gathering donation items, blood donations, and support for the people in Gaza. This started ever since Monday and Tuesday. Most of the western radio stations for example, namely: Play FM, Beat FM, Mood FM, Spin Jordan, where announcing the campaign by 7iber.com, the Jordan River Foundation's campaign, and blood donation campaigns. Some stations also canceled the special programs scheduled for new year's eve on their airwaves, those were namely: Play FM and Radio Sawt Al-Madina. And on Radio Sawt Al-Madina also for example, one of the dynamic and entertaining shows, “Nharak Sa3eed” had changed into a show that interacts with the listeners regarding the situation in Gaza and with national songs being played on air.

Last but not least, an announcement by Aramex for collecting donations for gaza was an interesting one to be heard on absolutely all the radio stations in both Arabic and English. Noting that no radio station requested any fees from aramex for announcing this Advertisement on their airwaves.


Thats all for this week,
Remember, for any suggestions or feedback, or if you hear anything unusual on the radio, on any radio station, tell us right away by email that to:
radio@ammannet.net