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

My own Radio Show segment on Radio Al-Balad 92.4 FM

I will be starting my own radio show segments by the beginning of 2009, where I'd be talking about the Jordanian Radio-sphere on weekly basis! Covering all the latest in the Jordanian radio scene, frequency updates, coverages, and what's hot and what's not on the Jordanian radio stations regardless of their genre and orientation.

The segments, will be weekly episodes as part of the radio show called: "Eye on Media", on Radio Al-Balad 92.4 FM, the 1st Jordanian Community Radio. Airing every Monday at 11 AM, and replayed Wednesdays at 4 PM..And will be also available as a podcast and a text-based format each and every week.

This weekly segment is fully prepared and cooked by yours truly, independently from any radio station, including Radio Al-Balad it self (this is how a real community radio should be after all!). As you most probably got used to my style on my blog, i will publish anything, rationally, independently, neutrally and clearly, based as much as possible on facts rather than personal opinions. And will make sure this will be my methodology while preparing this weekly segment. And i hope you'd feel free to accept any positive criticism, and feel free to comment on Absolutely anything! and feed the segment with what you listen on the radio right away to the email address: radio@ammannet.net

For the 1st upcoming episode, i will be reviewing the reactions on the jordanian radio stations regarding the Gaza crisis.

If you think you heard anything unusual lately on the radio on any station regarding this issue, please feel free to contact the email mentioned above or comment on this post.

Bloggers on air!

Radio Al-Balad and ammannet.net have announced the launch of "Bloggers on Air" (مدونون على الهواء), a project and initiative oriented for improving video blogging.

The project will train 25 individuals on how to blog and vblog, and then create a blog for each and every one of them. and a video cam for 20 of them. and accordingly start a radio show that will tackle what they would be blogging!

The complete information and registration details are available on this link

Classic Music back on the Jordanian airwaves

I don't want to say "finally", since i discovered this show on Radio Jordan English Service by mistake several weeks ago, but well, later better than never, we do have an hour of "Classic Music" weekly on the Jordanian airwaves!

With all this jam of radio stations on the jordanian airwaves, we don't have a single radio station providing us with "Classical Music", Back in April 2007 we had a potential of having a radio station playing this type of music on the airwaves, but the station turned to be, at the end of the story, Sunny 105.1 FM, a Hot AC station.

Thank god Radio Jordan's english service, took the duty of playing classic music after the continuous revolutions we had in it, especially after we used to have the french service airing over 5-6 hours of it daily, and utilizing the big classic music collection it has with a weekly show, which is being aired at 11 PM on Thursday nights.

The show, which i never heard a title for, is quite interesting, as there is a man telling us about the piece of music with all the tiny musical details before airing the musical piece.
The show lasts mostly for about an hour, but sometimes more, depending on the played piece's length. so don't get surprised if at a certain moment of silence, you get Rihanna singing! its just that the show has ended!

Update:
The classic music show broadcasting on radio jordan is called "Nocturne", and its prepared and presented by Tariq Younes, along with another couple of classic music shows:
"Fortisimo": Tuesdays 1-2 pm
"Jordanesque": Wednesdays 6-7 pm

BBC DJ quits Beat FM's rock show!

Last Night, Beat FM's rock show "Rock N Jordan" witnessed a change, the show is not presented by the BBC presenter Andy May anymore, and is now presented as a LIVE show (instead of being recorded all the way from the UK), by Rob Stevens and Dana Hjazeen. same time, tuesdays 9-11 PM.

Quite an improvement in style, show quality (content and sound), and interactivity, since it was live.

This comes of course after less than 1 month of having BBC's Andy May presenting the show, and having Andy quitting the duty of doing this show due to problems that seemed to be between Andy and the management at Beat FM.

I was wondering from the beginning on the reason behind having a DJ doing a recorded show from abroad by a non-residence DJ, especially when the resource is already available locally.

Finally, I got a clue that a Jordanian DJ will be doing the show entirely withing the next couple of weeks, wondering if yesterday's co-host, Dana, will be the one taking over the show

Urban Beats debutes today on Beat FM

Urban Beats, is a new Hip Hop, Rap & R'n'B show that is to debut tonight on Beat FM.

The show, which will be LIVE every wednesday from 9-11 PM (in contrast with Beat FM's Rock N Jordan), is hosted by DJ SOTUSURA, a Palestinian MC, Rapper, and DJ living in Jordan.



So finally, the Jordanian radio market is starting to MOVE and SHAKE! we are starting to hear different things on Western radio stations here in jordan, more shows, more entertainment, and a heavier competition.

Its amazing how it took the market to get jammed with 7 stations (out of which is from an international group), along with the public state english-speaking radio. to get more action in it!

How to listen to Spin FM's Spin@Work, while being actually ... At Work!

The photo is expressive enough .... anyway, try to listen to Spin@Work with Dj Hassan spinning 100 hits in a row from 10AM-4PM on Spin FM...Like it is!
& those guys should really start their online streaming on www.spin.jo , because not everyone is a radio freak like me :D

By the way, I will keep listening this way after the streaming is ON! damn internet qoutas :S

Al-Wakeel playing Hummam Ammari's "SubarStar" :)

Despite the fact that Hummam Ammari's latest funny song, "Jordanian SubarStar", which is a funny arabic remake of the famous Nickelback song "Rockstar", was produced by Play 99.6. & was made available by them through a post on their blog for public download. This song wasn't even aired by Play 99.6 fully on the airwaves, and only promoted with a small snap it of the song. most probably due to the "genre differences in the music style" :D

Anyway, just minutes away this morning, The famous radio announcer Mohammad Al-Wakeel, played the song on his show on Radio Fann :) as well the original one ... and he concentrated on the fragment of song where hummam says:
"بدي أطلع الصبح عبرنامج الوكيل"
Followed of course by Al-Wakeel's famous laugh :D

& we can say that it was 1st to be aired on Radio Fann, even before Play :D

For those who didn't hear it yet, it available for public download HERE

While the lyrics are available by R0ba on her blog with a nice analysis attempt :)

Finally! a ROCK Music show on a Jordanian Radio!

Rock N Jordan, on Beat FM 102.5! is, Finally!, the 1st Rock Music Radio Show on a commercial radio station in Jordan.


After we grew up on a heavy doze of Rock and Metal music back in time on Radio Jordan 96.3 FM's "Late Night Rock" every Wednesday for 4 entire hours before midnight. and after the show went off air and back on air several times with "Rania The Queen of Rock" (this is how we used to name her), and Laith Shankiti along with Zaid Al-Dahabi. We are now suffering a total lack of this music genre on the Jordanian Airwaves, nor on Radio Jordan 96.3 FM nor any other commercial radio.

So ... Rock N Jordan will premier on Beat FM 102.5 next Tuesday October 14th starting 9 PM. It will serve the listeners with 2 hours of the world's best Rock and Indie tracks. The style will include Rock, Pop Rock, Indie Rock, and Acoustic Rock.

Rock N Jordan WAS hosted at the beginning by BBC TV and Radio presenter Andy May. Until November the 4th, when was his last show (Maybe his 1st attempt to have a radio show for a non-UK radio station). Hoping that the show will be done by a Jordanian rock talent, like if we dont have 100s here!

I also received information confirming that Beat FM is interested in featuring Jordan's local talents' tracks on the show.... so, who knows! send one of your songs to demos@mybeat.fm (The email is provided on the website as well) and maybe they will be featuring your music on the show!

The 5th Element, back on Energy FM

The 5th element, the one and only Hip Hop, Rap, and R'n'B radio show in the middle eastern region, by Dj Shadia. is back to the Jordanian airwaves after it came out from Jordan on Play 99.6, and was stopped earlier last November 2007.

The 5th Element with DJ Shadia is back on Energy FM, at the same times as it used to be, Monday Evenings from 9 PM.

The show is also being aired on Mix FM Syria, and still airs on Radio 1 Lebanon.

Spin FM shows grid .. EXCLUSIVE!

This is EXCLUSIVE guys! only here on n@simjo .. and they're all starting ... today!
I bet the guys from Communicorp will kill me for this :D

Weekdays shows will be:

Breakfast Espresso with Tamer Bataineh: 7-10
Spin@Work (with 100 Spin Hits in a Row! Love it!) with Hasan Hijjawi: 10-16
Zoo Crew with Lena Ghannam (Yup! the Pulp girl!) and Mosaab Mustata: 16-19 (starting after ramadan)

While weekends will have a special grid as well:
The Late Late Breakfast Show with Emile Haddad: 10-13
and
The Weekender with Tamim Suyyagh: 16-19
The Juice with Hasan Hijjawi (Fridays): 19-22

Play 99.6's Radio Reality Show

An amazing idea Play 99.6 has came out with when thinking about their new compition "Live in it, to Win it" with Toyota.
The competition is in short, what i'd rather like to call, a "Radio Reality Show"



The competition in short, will involve 4 people, who would be living in the car one of them would win (The Toyota Yaris), 24/7, eat and sleep in it. with no mobiles, no electronic devices. and will be only allowed to go to the bathroom. The last contestant that will resist these conditions will be the winner of the car.

If you have been to city mall last weekend, where the competition will be held, you'll gonna mention the massive setup for it. Since it will be starting on the 22nd of May. The car in which the contestants will be spending their next coupla weeks or so, will have a complete camera setup recording what's going in the car as well.
Hmm, will they be producing a daily show about what's being done in the car, since we have no such much of an "interested" local TV stations, a channel on ikbis.com might be something nice :)

I told you it'll be a reality show :)
here's a trailer about it.

"Morning Fix" debuts on Energy FM this coming sunday

Energy FM which started earlier this year. Will finally start speaking :)

"Morning Fix" is the 1st show to go on the airwaves of Energy FM, which can be heard in Amman Greater Area on 97.7 FM, and is to broadcast Sunday-Thursday, 7 - 10 AM. & will be hosted by Dj Yanal Kassay, the one and only morning man ever since he used to be on RJ 96.3 FM's morning show, then on Beat FM, and now is back, better than ever hopefully, on Energy FM's Morning Fix, along with Adrienne Denaro.

The Rea' takes over the 5th element on Play 99.6! Why do we need foreigners taking over our DJs!

The 5th element, one of the, let me call it, pioneer radio shows across the middle east, as i stated once upon a time on this blog. Is a specialized radio show in Rap, Hip hop, and R'n'B that started ever since the early days of Play 99.6, by Dj Shadia Bseiso.

The Show got famous, and its presenter and spinner too ... so the show started to appear on Radio One Lebanon. And DJ shadia started getting a pan-arab reputation, and got to be part of several performances in Jordan, Lebanon, the GCC, and even Algeria, and maybe other places that i didn't get to know about!

Now after i got back from abroad last September, I mentioned that the 5th element is not any more on Play 99.6. instead, is the Rea' (or whateva it is called), a similar radio show by DJ Swerve. Who used to, by the way, one of the main supports of Dj Shadia and her show, with either jingles, remixes, and exclusive stuff!

I didn't contact shadia nor the management of play yet about this issue, and didn't want to ruin my wonders About this change!

I mean, the 5th element was going towards a bigger and bigger pan-arab scope, and i would have love to see this show being sold to radio stations across the middle east .... and now, its not being aired any more on the station where it 1st started!! here in jordan, on Play 99.6

By this, Play 99.6 has almost no more jordanian DJs! I already have a critique about the fact that Play, as well as other western radio stations in town are depending on non-jordanian staff to appear on the air!!!

Now i know that Dj Shadia does study in Beirut, and that the show is being recorded in Beirut's Radio 1 most of the time! When it is done, that is, since sometimes I used to find that the same episode of show is being aired for more than one week, or that the show is just a set of songs mashed up together.

But still .... i dunno ,,, that's not how things should have been or ended!

Is Dj Swerve's show less expensive for Play 99.6 than Dj Shadia's!!!!!

Maybe Dj Shadia has no problem with Swerve taking over .... but, I'm showing off a listener opinion around here...

Why are we still facing those couple of issues on the jordanian airwaves, substituting a Jordanian personnel with a foreigner, and the fact that we do still have radio shows that keep flipping on most of the radio stations (well, it doesn't happen that often to be mentioned on most of the radio stations,, but it still happens, just like that ... with a simple tick!) !

Drop your 2 cents in here regarding this issue..

Mood FM is speaking (Part #2)

Right now, the 4th of Feb, 2007. 4 PM Jordan Local Time. Mood FM started its Second radio show, and the very first edition of Mood FM's "Afternoon Drive"!

Mood FM is Speaking!

Yesterday, Saturday the 20^th of January is the first time i ever hear Mood FM SPEAKING!

Now other than what is called: “The Report” which cames out at some top of the hours on mood FM, and which, in my opinion, doesn't really have anything in relation with Mood FM's style as a headline of non political news, mainly celebrity news, and sometimes technology/gadgets news... This is really the 1^st time i ever that i hear a LIVE voice on Mood FM (Its obvious enough that “the report” is most of the time recorded).

Now Maybe the voice that appeared was NOT engineered in such a good quality that Mood FM's music is (“The Report” readers do not have their voice magnificently engineered either) .... but a step forward is hearing that voice.

The DJ's name is DJ Rebecca ... the show was called “Late night Lounge” and it lasted until midnight. Featuring a real nice collection of lounge relaxy music (Rather than most ammani lounge modern progressive house music, AKA: today's commercial lounge music)..... or mostly at least...!

NICE I SAY!

Wednesday's Late Night Rock back on Radio Jordan FM

Finally, and due to High Popular Demand, a 100% ROCK and ONLY ROCK dedicated show is back on Radio Jordan 96.3 FM...

and yes, it's the Wednesday's Late Night Rock, not with nice old days of Dj Ranya though (a.k.a the Queen of rock ,,, just before some changes in her taste to turkish music and leaving to the states ;P) but with Dj Laith Shankitee, who was a Dj in the station in the back old days....

Oohh, I hope it will be upon my expectations, especially in such a rock-lousy radio airwaves nowadays, especially after the host of the Sunday Alternative Show on Radio Jordan, the not that long stayer Dj Haitham Shishanee, and with other stations around claiming their considerations of Rob Thomas and Shakira's "Dont Bother" as Rock (holly crap maybe).... and the non-stop identity-less music policy that some stations apply, making even the few played rock songs evaporated in the mass of junk music.

Its true that some Djs Still consider Rock ( & I MEAN ROCKKKKK!) a major part of their play list (The Morning Madness guys, and “The Middle of the Road Show's” Dj Safana on RJ FM, as well as some Mood FM Silent Djs) but This is not really what a rocker wants, Thus, I'm thinking big on those 4 hours of rock starting this Wednesday night,,,

Be there, 8 PM – Midnight.

Technorati tags: Wednesday, Late, Night, Rock, Radio, Jordan, 96.3, FM

The 5th Element – a Middle Eastern Media Brand?!

You must have came over a show entitled (The 5th Element) with Dj Shadya on Play FM 99.6 , they even had an event at Nai earlier this year entitled (Explicit).

Despite the fact that im a Rock & alternative music fan,and a very Anti-Rap & R’n’B huge switch on the market during 2004, & Rap‘s switch in general from a sound of freedom in mid & end 90s to simple pornography in post-2K ,,, but this is an R’n’B,Rap, & HipHop show that i do respect very much, simply for its professionalism & subjectivity in the industry ... this 1 hour show is simply: a Brand!

The friday before, being in Irbid, I have 2 radio stations that i switch between being there every now & then, those are Jordan FM on its northern airwave of 90.9 FM & a Lebanese station by the name of Radio One on 105.5 FM (it transmits from the wester Lebanese mountains chain, thus u can get in the northern parts of Jordan, particularly Irbid, mafraq , & some areas in Ajlun Mountains).

I’ve always related Radio 1’s style to Jordan’s Play FM ... not that much in the play list, since Radio 1 has a much more wider variety that includes alternative music & Rock unlike Play’s redundant R’n’B & pop dance style,,, but in the domain being a commercial hit music station... & even the jingles style... well,, ok ,, we all know that some play jingles are “inspired” from famous commericals,, just like Microsofts Xbox promo (Live’s short, play longer) => switched by Play to (Live’s short, listen longer) ... & Radio 1’s (Lebanon Never Sounded better) => to (Amman never sounded better) .... or well ,, I figured that out being a Radio 1 listener even before Play starting in Amman.

So,back to the topic,being in irbid, on a friday night, at 8 PM, I heard this: “The 5th Element with DJ Shadya exclusively on Radio 1 Lebanon” .....!!!! WHAT!!!?
Yeah, Dj Shadya is on Radio 1 as well as Play! Thats on friday & This’s on Mondays,,,, on that she mentions she’s on Radio 1, & has a certain contest & prizes from local shops,, & On this she mentions she’s on Play, Jordan’s Nr 1 hit music Station & has a certain contest & prizes from Local shops (Generation)!!!!

Same style,same guy introducing her, same local rapper doin’ his thing... & same Dj Shadya on the same 5th element ;)

This explains to the Dj Shadya’s fans why the show turns into a Rap mix every now & then on Play.. because this is when she is on Radio 1...
I dont think the show gets live on neither stations, but shows are up to date & no redundant episodes are done... for example the show i heard that friday on Radio 1 wasnt the same on Play when the show got back after a coupla weeks of (Shadya on the mix) which is used when the show is on Radio 1 ..... Nice Formula of success ;)

For Real!
Now i dont really know if there’s another 5th element some where else... but since there’s no developed radio industry in the area but in Jordan & Lebanon ... & well, Dubai for sure ,,, but that’s kinda far from here ;)
Respect to the Lady in the industry .... Dj Shadya on the 5th element is the 1 to drop it like its HoT ;)