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| Hot New American Radio Station (SAWA) Shakes Up Morocco's Biggest Markets |
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| 12:00:00 AM Saturday Apr 10, 2004 |
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As part of the US administration's determination to communicate the intentions of its presence in the Middle east and to spread its vision, media know-how comes in handy, and the first American radio in the region was born: Radio SAWA. The radio aims at keeping listeners updated on events in the middle east, airs debates and discussions. It was highly embraced in Morocco. I personnaly think it is important to listen to it to get exposed to some of the US opinion. Limiting oneself to Al-Jazeera and local media may not necessarily promote a progressive compromising attitude. The following article found on PR Newswire talks about the success of radio sawa in Morocco. What are your feelings about it?
"WASHINGTON, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S.-sponsored Radio Sawa, the most
successful network of youth-oriented radio stations in the Middle East, has
taken Morocco's two biggest cities by storm. After only six months on the air
on FM in Casablanca and Rabat, Radio Sawa is now the number one station among
all radio listeners 15 and older. Radio Sawa did it with a customized
Moroccan version of its upbeat mix of Arabic and Western pop music and
comprehensive up-to-the-minute news.
An in-depth media survey conducted by ACNielsen in February and March of
2004, showed that 73 percent of all persons 15 and older in Casablanca and
Rabat tuned to Radio Sawa every week, more than any other station. Listening
for Moroccans under the age of 30 was 88 percent and for those over the age of
30 was 64 percent... » read the full story"
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mahdi
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Rasta Garcia! Thank for your insight. Here are few additional thoughts. The airwaves or spectrum is the property of the people. In the "FREE WORLD", when different pieces of the airwaves (spectrum) are freed up or not used, for example, the country in question open a national debate through a well defined open process, where the government, industry as well the people decide how that piece of the spectrum can be used to best serve the need of its people. In the US, for example, except for records on the spectrum used in matters related to national security, which are kept secret, all other records concerning the rest of the spectrum are accessible to anyone who wants to know.
The federal register is one place where records are kept. There are also search rooms, government and non-government databases accessible by the internet, where records are filled and retrieved from. For example, anyone can find out how much sprint and the others paid for the spectrum that they are using. Now, in Morocco, couple FM stations have been given to the US government for reasons and under circumstances known only to very few who aren?t talking. Why the secrecy? How much did the US Government pay for those channels and where is the money? We want to know. |
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trancemaster
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 I would love to see the reaction of the moroccans back home if they put howard stern\'s show in sawa radio.. lol...
how will our people react to \"spank that ass baby\" or \" r ur boobs fake? \" lol. oh man, i think we need a moroccan howard stern back home in TV. \"Douri nchouf lik lmasaeel\" lol.
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ma mo7llil ma mo7errim
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 the media in morocco! go look at 2M site and you will see what kinda movies they haave, what music they play, and what programs they have... majorite marikane:) loook at ITEM, no comment ale7ebabe listen to 96:00 ida3ato rribate!! inna l2ichara takouno sa3a : wekt ne3ass o tekesswil. read the newspapers....jaridato lewatan, le matin: sa majeste a rencontre le president francais et mr fassi lefihri a assiste a la reunion!!! o salate lekissa..sire tewedda!! odaba jate lalla SAWA......... ohhh ghada te7el lina lemoshkil mere7ba bik a SAWA et HAWA et KHAWA fi 3alam debbane olejafafe l2i3lami PS: sewwel mol taxi i3tik lekhebar:) |
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abdelilah message
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 The Moroccan parliament approved the contract of SAWA. And the parliament is a forum of representatives-elected by people- no matter how the election is held. This is the reason I used "democRATIC".
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abdelilah message
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The Moroccan parliament approved the contract of SAWA. And the parliament is a forum of representatives-elected by people- no matter how the election is held. This is the reason I used "democRATIC".
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___rasta___
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I am having hard time following the arguments at this time, so this may be my last post. I want to clarify a few things though: 1- Regulation does not mean giving a bureaucrat the authority to grant or deny licenses arbitrarily. It means having a legal text that provides framework and process that are known by all and that apply to all. There should obviousely be debate before such text is drafted in order to maintain 'fairness.' Regulation should not equate limited freedom of speech. In other countries, there are neighbourhood network stations where you can have your own show if you'd like (check out the rasta garcia show by the way coming to a tv set near you.) There is an application, there is a fee, you apply like everyone else, if there is a slot available you can take it. Last time I was in Morocco, I brought it up with a friend of mine that works at RTM and he laughed it out. I still think there is use for it 2- I concede on Al-Jazeerah for the simple reason that everyone seems to want to fight demaguogy (fox, cnn, cnbc, etc.) with even more demaguogy (al-jazeerah and the rest of our networks.) They're both on the same axis. Why not work on a different axis altogether. An axis that does not entertain. But maybe we're now arguing about the philosophical role of the media and the human instinct to want to hear the news 3- As far as Sawa is concerned, you can bet your sweet ass that it's here to stay. There is plenty of money behind it, and the whole might of congress that protects it. And if this new breed of neocons could have it their way, you'll be filling up prison corners if you say too much against it In the mean time, light up a spliff, and enjoy p-didy and brit spears shake it down on your favorite radio station: sawa Jah bless
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Adnane Ben. message
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Who is accepting and rejecting offers? it is definitely not the "people" if that is what you mean by "democratically". Which brings me to the other question of what will guarrantee that the "people" proposal to launch their own radio or TV is fascilitated and accepted? My point is that you are either misusing the word "democratically" or you are denying that there already is regulation of radio in Morocco and this regulation is definitely not keeping people's development in mind, but rather utilizing people's shallow interests in order to promote deeper interests of 3rd parties.
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abdelilah message
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Good questions Adnane. I meant by granting contracts democratically following the normal bidding procedure to grant FM access to foreign channels. The BBc offer was refused by Morocco and granted to SAWA. I meant by democratic contracts no preference clause or like they say in trade the Most preferred nation clause.
I believe in no regulations because it is maybe my bias toward freedom of speech in its largest sense. The market will adjust itself because those who are unhappy with what SAWA offers for example, can launch another anti-Sawa channel and from diversity comes the truth. People will listen to everything and will decide for themselves.
About the point of Antr, yes there is a discrepancy in means but this is where all Arab riches should come in and help al jazeera. Of course I am against bombing Al Jazeera offices. If one remembers the last documentary about Sufism in Al Jazeera (sirri lilghaya), it was presented with a negative bias showing people hitting themselves (that has nothing to do with sufism). You can tell that some Gulfie capitals are clearly expressing their views.
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Antr McShaddad (Yahia.L) message
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Remember, during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq,
Al jazeera's offices were respectively bombarded in Kaboul and Baghdad for broadcasting live coverage of the war. (Rumsfield said that it was an error...)
Al Jazeera has only $100 Million as a budget, Sawa has the whole congress !
Where do you see the balance ?
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Adnane Ben. message
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What is the context of these verses, and what are you trying to illustrate with it?
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Adnane Ben. message
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What do you mean by "grant contracts democratically" ? and what makes you think that the "market" will balance ideologies? and why is it that we should not regulate "idelogies" especially if some of them can be destructive, abusing and/or a waste of people's money and time?
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abdelilah message
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I really like your way of seing things Rasta and I hopeto see your comments more on the board. I am not in favor of any regulation for the media, we need to grant contracts democratically and let the market balance all ideologies. It is good to expose people to CNBN, Al Jazeera, SAWA, NPR, Monte Carlo.... |
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Peaceful
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 I think that aljazeera is the best news channel in the arab world. it is the first arab channel that made "the opinion....and the other opinion" motto to this region of the world. It is the first channel to broadcast "hard-talk" programs. it is also the first channel to show and educate the arab youth about the israeli-palestinian conflict. Can you compare it to RTM or 2M!!! it has only professional journalist who dare to ask bold questions. fozx, i am not saying it is a perfect channel but still it brings the news ON TIME , and it even make the news.
PS: the arab world needs 100 aljazeera, after 200 years of lack of freedom of speech.
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___rasta___
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You're right about the donkey thing. But you know what's worse than being a donkey: being a donkey's ass. Al-Jazeerah is a drug to all those shattered arabs who have lost hope in the rational and prefer to live in a fantasy world. It feeds your most basic emotions just as AM talk radio feeds right wingers' emotions in the US. It has the power to make you angry if it chooses, to make you proud if it chooses, to make you sad if it chooses. You have no choice in the matter. Sawa is a different drug; it's coated with sugar. The latest hits blasting the airwaves act like bait for mindless drones. It injects ideology into your head. Statements such as "terrorists according to ..." bear no significance to the target audience with an undersized attention span. But since we can't have a world without media, maybe the best we can hope for is better regulation of the media with the interests of people in mind. ps. by the way, RTM is no angel either, but at least people who it belongs to |
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Student casablancais in NY
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 To me Sawa is just a new mean used to get trough to the arab youth, change it or evenmore mold it to become more compatible with the western ideologies. That has been the case for ages either through music,movies, games... therefore i could not careless listening to it or further condem it. Al jazeerah in the other hand is more of a news organization that 1 st record the news, then puts them into an Arab prospective. It is one of the rare arab news agencies that stand in our side and shows us a different truth than the one in CNN or FoxNews for that matter. So before we condem it, what we should do is 1st of all understand where we come from, what has been done to us as muslim nations, what is being done to us right now, form an opinion, and finally take a stand on the different issues. After that if your opinoin is diferent than the rest of the people that would be your right to express it. However if you do not understand what is happening around you i do not think you should critic anybody's work for that matter, and stay as the donkey that you are your whole life.
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Peaceful
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" wa 2ida ra2aytahom to3jiboka ajssamohom, wa 2in ya9oulou tassma3 li9awelihim, ka2annahom khoshobone mossannada, ya7ssabouna kolla say7atine 3alayehim, homo le3adowwo fa7darhom, 9aatalahomo llah anna yo2fakoun" sada9a llaho le3adim. sourate almonafi9oun aya raqm 4.
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mb
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je suis en partie d accord avec ce ke tu dis sur le fait de balancer l opinion...on ne peut certes pas avoir un maroc ki ne recois ke des chaines tels que al jazeera et d autre chaine wahabites ce serais tres dangereux...et je te prie d excuser mon commentaire sur M6...je devrais ecouter sawa un peu plus avant de porter un jugement
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abdelilah message
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I like Rasta's comments...they are really good. The AC Nielsen research is ambiguous and problematic. Al Jazeera is sensational and not objective.
Radio SAWA is not an opinion channel. I personally did interviews with Sassi Mohammed, Mustapha Ramid, Fathallah Arsalane and others. It gives voice to all sides related to an event taking place. It is financed by the US for an agenda definitely but they give voice to many people from different backgrounds.
The comment about criticizing M6 is irrelevant. We aired at times the speech of king Mohamed VI and at times Ahmed Rami the political refugee in Sweden said that Algeria and Morocco are regimes la tumathilu chu3ubaha and it was aired. Criticizing just to criticize like Al Jazeera does is giving up to Arab sensationalism. I wish those criticizing SAWA do some content analysis and then judge.
There are certain things we do not say like al ihtilaal al amriki in Irak or for Israel and I do not know why. We try to balance things from the inside and the crew are like you and me caring about the UMMA and the state of affairs of poor Arab and Muslim countries.
We do not call Hamas people terrorists or freedom fighters...we say terrorists according to... or freedom fighters according to....
The point about Britney Spears is not relevant. It is not SAWA which introduced SPEARS but it was already popular in Morrocco. Other channels brough tstar Academy and others infested th earea with Wahabi ideology or #amru khalid.
SAWA manipule l'opinion publique? ma foi la RTM le fait en jouant a cache cache!
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khmira
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la radio sawa est la pour manipuler l'opinion public ...pour ne pas voir les etas unis en sa vrai image ...
et apparemment leur mission est reussie si l'audience augmente...
j'espere que les gens reflechiront un peu avant de faire confiance a ce genre de medias
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mb
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they call terrorists terorists ... how would you call those ppl anyway ???
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Antr McShaddad (Yahia.L) message
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" Since people like it then that mean Sawa is doing a good Job..No to be successed w/ no good job " - hehehe..you remind me of one of the Schwarzenggers kaka movies (Running man, if I remember) .
the guy running an ultra violent program to entertain the audiance, said as an argument "poeple want violence, we give it to them" .
using the same logic, I suppose the porno channels are also doing a good job, since an average teen agers can get hooked to it ...
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___rasta___
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Well how many radio stations are we stacking this thing up against? and it is obvious that Casa and Rabat are representative samples of Moroccan musical taste (I say that with respect - I've been a Rai fan for a long time until I discovered Sha3bi not long ago.) What you are reading in the subject text is a press release from Radio Sawa. It is not an objective source telling us that this is "the most successful network of youth-oriented ... blah blah blah ..." It is the company's management using the well-known tactics of American hype to create something out of nothing. What is AC Nielson methodology in Morocco? Do the radio hosts even bother read to their listners the last paragraph from the press release? I don't think so. What if the government were to offer a similar license to the BBC, would sawa even show on the charts? Questions along these lines are what I call being honest with oneself; we'll leave other cheesecake verbosity to the managers of the station who ultimate have to answer the American Congress (read that last paragraph in the press release.) In a country that lacks proper legislation for communication media, and where free-speech is a carrot hiding a stick, AC Nielson "opinions" are meaningless. |
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I m Rich, Biatch
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I personnaly think that SAWA has long term goals, as you said, they call arabs terrorists, and report the news with a slight bow to the american statement of facts...Moroccans like everything that comes from foreign countries. after 10 or 20 years, our children will know palestinians as terrorists, Islam as a the religion to avoid...one has to be careful, but for sure, at least 5 or 10% will take all what the radio station says as a reliable fact, and this is the most dangerous drawback of that station.
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Dj
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 salam All of you..I do work for Radio Sawa as aProgrammer (Music )...A brief comment to all of you..Lets Just ask yourself one question..Why Sawa is The 1 station in Morocco now?The answer of corse because people like it..Since people like it then that mean Sawa is doing a good Job..No to be successed w/ no good job...So please guy lets be honest w/ ourselves...Plus if you have any suggestions you could write to radio Sawa..We realy take seriousley our listeners's Opinions at comments@radiosawa.com...
thanks for listening
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___rasta___
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Sawa radio is as thin as the air it broadcasts on. Who sponsors it? it never mentions it through the 99% of the time it spends blasting B Spears (aka bs) and other crappy musical selections. Contrast that with NPR, which makes sure they tell you on a regular basis who funds them so you can decide how much you want to believe; although the fund-raisers get to be a little too frequent. And then there are the continuous references to "terrorists," the permanent substitution of the "occupation powers" by the "state of Israel" as to force ligitimacy on people's minds, and so on and so forth. So let's see what we have so far: no identity to the news it broadcasts, and selective substitutions and bending of truths. I'd say it's a lousy propaganda tool that people of Morocco will see through very quickly. Let me also remind you that Al Jazeerah is not different from CNN. They are cut from the same cloth. Their objective is to highlight controversy, not to report on issues. Anyone who believes Al Jazeerah is an objective station must reconsider how much truth he's learned from it over the years. Their guest lists include serious thinkers (which is a testament to the intellectual power of the arab/muslim world,) but their hosts and editors have no interest in objectivity. It seems that once again Morocco is selling an important asset to the highest bidder. This time, the asset is the gate to the minds of our youth.
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Antr McShaddad (Yahia.L) message
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Such a radio has nothing to offer...its Brithney Spears, Puff Daddys and their sick philosophies can not teach the vulnerable Moroccan youths about anything that would help them in the present or future... Sekwila is the only tool of survival for most Moroccan kids, they need orientation and discipline, instead of getting bombarded by more confusing programs... Morocco needs private educational channels, run by the Moroccans for the Moroccans, Radio Sawa is neither Moroccan, nor educational and not even private... I let you wonder about it's objectives ... |
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Peaceful
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i wonder what is the mission of sawa in the arab world? what would be the return on investment of the american government from the establishment of such a radio station in morocco? what would be the ROI on the channel named allhora as well? why does the american government spends 150million dollars to talk to the arab world? by the way, does 2M represent the moroccan culture? the islamic culture? the arab culture? the berber culture? the sahrawi culture? what is the role of the ministry of culture in morocco? i think these are interesting questions to ask, because the european learned one thing after they invaded the world in the 19th century... you dont have to bring tanks and missile to colonize a country, but do change the culture of the pple and the land will follow! Peace. |
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mb
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they talk about bush but they wouldn t talk about M6!!!!! so i doesn t change anything for the moroccan pop....we need a radio that would be able to talk about moroccan problems....i like radio sawa...even my father has it tuned on all the time....but again it is not a radio that talks about what happends in morocco... we are kinda losing our identities with all the foreign media we get in morocco....don t u think guys?
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Priorite
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if i say that we need radio casa and dakhla, it doesn't mean a radio that has only a name and no content. freedom of speech is a preriquisite to any successful station. now it is a question of priority as i said. we need ours first then we may let the american and the bangladesh station enter. since we dont have ours....gallih ashkhassek ale3areyane, lekhatem a moulay! |
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abdelilah message
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I work in Radio SAWA so maybe my view is a bit biased from the inside but I am also exposed to specific information. I am also doing a research about SAWA and I gathered a questionnaire about SAWA from the staff working there comparing it with the views of outsiders. We do criticize the US and BUSH, a fact that you will never hear from RAdio Casablanca about the leaders. Even the speech of the king Mohamed VI after the earthquake in al hoceima where he said that the efforts fell short of the expectations was censored by the Maghreb Arab Press (MAP). I think that we need al Jazeera and SAWA and NPR. the issue of the exceptional illegality of SAWA is indeed problematic. I wanted to do an interview with Elmandjra and he refused and I respect his choice. But when abdelilah Benkirane, Boulahya, said he can't speak with Sawa it does not make sense because he spoke once with voice of America from the headquarters of dakhiliyya. We did interviews with many anti-Americans like Sassi Mohamed, Saad al fakih, mustapha Ramid, fathallah Arsalane....
Voice of America did an interview with Mullah Omar despite the pressure of the State department so it is not because we are American that we are bad. This anti-
Americanism is helped by rulers to deviate people's attention.
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priorite
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we need radio casa, tanja, dakhla, oujda, fes, tafraout, leguewira....then we may talk about sawa. now we have nothing. medi1 is french... moroccan law forbid radio waves to enter. there was an execption to sawa which made the bbc protest! but hey . GUALLIH ACHEKHASSEK ALE3EREYANE, GALLO LEKHATEM A MOULAY!! |
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