The Middle East has a radio history as old as broadcasting itself, and a musical culture of extraordinary richness that radio has carried into millions of homes since the 1930s. Radio Cairo, Voice of the Arabs, and the Arabic-language services of the BBC and international broadcasters shaped the region’s political and cultural landscape in ways that television and the internet are still competing with.
Radio Cairo and the Arab world
Radio Cairo, broadcasting since 1934, became one of the most powerful radio stations in the world under President Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s. Its Voice of the Arabs service carried Nasser’s pan-Arab nationalist politics across the region and became the primary news source for Arabs from Morocco to Iraq during critical political events — the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967. No other radio station has had a comparable political impact in the post-war world. The BBC Arabic Service and Voice of America Arabic Service have been important counterweights and continue to broadcast today.
Arabic music on radio
Arabic music radio carries a rich and varied tradition. Classical Arabic maqam-based music — the modal scales and intricate melodic structures of the classical Arabic tradition — is programmed on public cultural stations across the region. The towering figures of the 20th century — Umm Kulthum, Fairuz, Abdel Halim Hafez — are still in heavy rotation on nostalgic and cultural stations. Modern Arabic pop (from the Gulf’s commercial pop industry and Lebanon’s entertainment sector) is the dominant commercial format. Rai music from Algeria, Turkish-influenced pop in the eastern Mediterranean, and reggaeton-influenced Arabic pop represent the genre’s ongoing evolution.
Persian and Turkish language radio in the region
Iran’s Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) runs Persian-language radio nationally and internationally. The BBC Persian Service and Radio Farda (US government-funded) provide international alternatives. Gulf states — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar — run major commercial and public radio operations in both Arabic and English, reflecting their large expatriate populations. MBC FM from Saudi Arabia and Dubai’s network of English-language commercial stations serve the region’s international communities.