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FM RADIO SERVICES TO BE LAUNCHED IN RAK

In a step that coincides with the developmental boom happening in the emirate’s economic and social sectors, plans have been formulated here to launch FM radio services. “All arrangements have been made to start FM...

service in the emirate very soon,” K. P. Vengara, Director of RAK Media (RM), told Khaleej Times.

The 24-hour radio service will also provide a variety of entertainment, news-oriented, and informative programmes in different Asian languages, and would cover the entire country.

“Our existing 1152AM channel airs multilingual programmes and covers the entire country, besides large parts of the Arabian Gulf region,” he said. “Both services are aimed at bolstering the UAE’s position as a symbol of accommodating all nationalities together,” he added. He also expressed his gratitude to the RAK authorities for “allowing us to broadcast in the different regional languages.” Besides Arabic, the emirate’s AM radio service broadcasts in different Asian languages like Bengali, Sinhalese, Marathi, Pushto, and Kannada. The Arabic programmes start from 6am to 1pm and from 6pm to 11pm, whereas each of the programmes in other languages takes from one to two hours per day. “We know that people are very keen to be updated on the political, economic and social events taking place in their home countries in their respective languages, so we are seriously considering plans to include other regional languages,” he said. This is besides broadcasting in different languages, to “bolster the bilateral relations between these countries and the UAE,” he added.

“Our programmes are getting very good response from the audience,” he added. This is because the people like the radio more than other media, “as it is audible everywhere — in their cars, at their homes, or while they are at work, and at any time,” Vengara, who spent the prime of his life in the industry, said.

In response to criticism that the station tends to be commercial and has turned into a 100 per cent profit institution, besides turning a blind eye to its role as an edutainment facility, he said: “On the contrary, the contents of our programmes have remained the same, and because they are very good ones and receive an overwhelming response from the public, so many businesses come forward to sponsor them,” he said. Moreover, “we should not ignore the fact that commercials help in developing the country as a whole and give a great push to the economic and social growth taking place here,” he said.