The Business of Radio

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THE BUSINESS OF RADIO | BROADCASTERS
36 | WORLD RADIO DAY 2016 | CELEBRATING RADIO
RADIO SAWA
PARENT ORGANISATION MIDDLE EAST BROADCASTING NETWORKS (MBN)
KEY CONTACT INFORMATION
BRIAN CONNIFF
President of MBN
WILLIAM SABATINI
General Manager of Radio Sawa and MBN Digital
DANIEL NASSIF
Vice President of Network News for MBN
MAHA RABIE
Managing Editor of Radio Sawa
RADIO SAWA
MBN
7600 Boston Blvd.
Springfield, Va. 22153 USA
PROGRAMME GENRES
A mix of contemporary Western and Arabic music with
more than six hours of news per day.
KEY PROGRAMMES
Sawa Magazine
What’s Your Opinion?
Morning Papers
Free Zone
PROFILE
Launched in 2002, Radio Sawa
(Arabic for ‘together’) mixes
Western and Arabic popular music
along more than six hours of news
per day. Its successful format,
which spawned imitators across the
region, serves as a vehicle to
provide accurate and unbiased
news in easily digestible
increments. Radio Sawa’s core
audience of 15-25 year olds tune in
for the music and stay through the
newscasts. Radio Sawa’s audience
has grown up listening to the radio
network and has come to rely on it
for their news and information.
In the past couple of years, Radio
Sawa has looked to create more of a
dialogue with its audience. The
radio network built on its popular
interactive mainstay Sawa Chat by
incorporating more listeners’
comments and views in its
programmes. Through mobile
applications and social media,
Radio Sawa’s audience is speaking
out and having their voices heard.
Radio Sawa’s Facebook page has
more than six million fans and
includes discussions topics heard
on the radio network, encouraging
fans to share their opinions. And its
mobile app allows listeners to tune
into any one of Radio Sawa’s eight
streams, consume news and
provide user generated content to
the network.
In recent months Radio Sawa’s
Iraq stream has expanded its
programming format to include
longer-form programmes for its
Iraqi audience that also have
interactive elements. Radio Sawa’s
Iraq stream launched a daily 65-
minute interactive programme
What’s Your Opinion, which
encourages Iraqi listeners to call in
or SMS their comments to be
included on the issues being
discussed. Listeners from across
the country reach out to What’s
Your Opinion to share their views
and have their voices heard.
Another new programme to
Radio Sawa’s Iraq line-up is
Morning Papers, the 90-minute
magazine programme that focuses
on the political, social or cultural
issues impacting Iraqis. Each
episode highlights two main topics
and gathers a variety of
perspectives including the From The
Streets segment that includes
interviews with Iraqis from across
the country, reaction from Radio
Sawa’s Facebook page and
recorded soundbites from callers.
Radio Sawa’s interactive reach
continues to grow, reflecting the
needs of its diverse and engaged
audience. It has evolved from being
just a source of news and
informational programming, to
now being a larger discussion on
topics relevant to the audience.
Arabic with eight different
streams (Iraq, Morocco,
Mauritania, Lebanon, Sudan,
Libya, Gulf and Jordan)
Estimated audience
Nearly 11 million listeners per
week (according to Gallup)
Hours on the air
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Year of launch 2002
Funding source
Financed by the U.S. Government
through a grant from the
Broadcasting Board of
Governors (BBG), an
independent federal agency.
Services operated
Broadcasts on FM and AM in