Emirati helped launch Ajman’s first radio station more than half a century ago

Salim Obaid Al Alelee was the first radio show presenter in Ajman.

Salim Obaid Al Alelee was aged just 12 when he started working at the Ajman radio station, earning him the title of ‘the first and youngest radio broadcaster in the emirate of Ajman’. Jeffrey E Biteng / The NationalShow less

AJMAN // When Salim Obaid Al Alelee speaks, people listen. The Emirati mastered the art of conversation at a young age, which made him the perfect person to take the microphone to launch Ajman’s first radio station more than 50 years ago.

“My friend and relative Rashid bin Abdullah had the idea of making a radio station in 1961. He started installing the equipment consisting of radio, dry battery, wires, mike and gramophone,” the 66-year-old said.

“He told me he had succeeded in creating the station at a time when there was no [local] radio station except British broadcasting in Sharjah, because we were under British protection at that time.

“He wanted me to be the presenter on air because I was educated and able to read and write,” said Mr Al Alelee, who studied at Quranic schools in Ajman before in 1958 enrolling at one of the first government schools to open, where he learnt English.

Mr Al Alelee was just 12 when he started working at the radio station, earning him the title of “the first and youngest radio broadcaster in the emirate of Ajman”.

The youngster's first words on air were "Ajman Broadcasting is here". He presented a music programme called As Requested by Listeners, reading political news about the ruler of the emirate and regularly hosted religious scholars and poets.

When Ajman Station closed in 1965, Mr Al Alelee became chairman of Al Nasser Sports Club, the first club of its kind in Ajman.

After a decade at the club, he left to take a government job at the Labour and Workers Department in Abu Dhabi. He also worked as a receptionist, notary in the Legal Court and then at the Ajman passport department.

“While I was working at the passport department I got the high school certificate from Egypt in 1978 through affiliation. Then I affiliated to Beirut Arab University and the exams were taking place in Egypt, but on the day of the exam, the university prevented GCC students from doing the exam and I don’t know the reason, so that is why I couldn’t get the certificate,” he said.

After working as a general manager at the Dubai and the Northern Emirates offices of the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper Al Fajr, Mr Al Alelee opened his own advertising company, although he did not stay long.

“I left the advertisement company and then I opened a petroleum derivatives company in Ajman, but due to problems it had to be closed,” he said. “Thereafter I opened a contracting company where I still work today. I’m used to starting in each field from zero and I see that I can work in any job,” Mr Al Alelee said.

Aside from his dealings with different businesses and brush with radio celebrity, Mr Al Alelee also finds time to write poetry, something he has been doing regularly for the past 36 years. He has penned more than 200 poems and is planning to have a book of his work published.