Radio Sawa’s Bad News to Many Young Arabs

KUWAIT — Young Arabs tuning in to a new American government radio station designed especially for them rave about its international playlist--but many are not happy with its news reports. They see it as propaganda.

In targeting the 30-and-under crowd who make up 60% of the Arab world’s 280 million people, Radio Sawa has ditched the news and public-affairs focus of the Voice of America Arabic-language service it replaced. Its music-heavy programming resembles a youth-oriented station in the United States--only without the commercials.

While a U.S. pop station uses music to draw an audience for ads for consumer goods, Radio Sawa--”Radio Together” in Arabic--makes no qualms about using music to connect with Arab listeners in an effort to show how and what Americans think. It began broadcasting from Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in late March and is looking to grow by transmitting from more countries in the Middle East.

The United States is largely seen in this region as a supporter of Israel against Palestinians. Many here also believe the war on terrorism is directed at their religion, Islam, not just at Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida organization. If Radio Sawa wants to dispel those notions, it will have to break through a barrier of skepticism.

“I used to listen to it, but stopped once I found it was American radio,” said Yousef, a 30-year-old Palestinian who lives in the United Arab Emirates. “They are trying to improve their image and introduce themselves in a different way, through music instead of politics. I know them, and I still don’t like them.”

For news, Yousef, who refused to give his full name, said he watches Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television and Saudi Arabia’s Middle East Broadcasting Corp.

Buthaina Jad’on, a schoolteacher in Jordan’s capital of Amman, said she was shocked when Sawa interrupted its programming recently for a broadcast of a speech by President Bush.

“I don’t like its political news because they are biased to America and show the Arabs in a different and wrong image,” the 27-year-old said. “I listen to its music only and turn it off when the news begins.”

Norman Pattiz, the primary inspiration behind the station, said Americans, in turn, believe Arab media skew the news. Although mending that was not the station’s primary goal, Sawa “may counter some of the perceptions” that regional media create about America, he said.

Pattiz, founder of the Westwood One radio network in the United States, scoffed at charges that Sawa airs U.S. propaganda. “We wouldn’t know how to do propaganda if we were asked to,” he said.

Along with songs by top international and Arab stars like Brian Adams, Lebanon’s Pascal Mishalani, Britney Spears and Egypt’s Hisham Abbas, the 24-hour station broadcasts public-service messages against drugs and drinking-and-driving.

Sawa typically devotes about 15 minutes of every hour to news, with shows at a quarter past and quarter of the hour.

In addition to occasional speeches by top U.S. officials, the station offers interviews with them. An Arabic translation of the Bush speech that angered listener Jad’on was broadcast 15 minutes after the president made it in Washington. In June, Sawa had a lengthy chat with Secretary of State Colin Powell, with Arabic translation played over Powell’s explanation in English of the Bush administration’s Middle East peace strategies. The station also has a daily roundup of news about Iraq.

Sawa has no firm statistics yet on the size of its audience.