Gold adds to UAE's wealth of radio stations

DUBAI // When Gurukulam Vijayan heard the soothing lyrics of a famous Indian musician on the radio in Dubai in 1976, bachelors from neighbouring apartments ran into his room to listen. It was the first time they had heard a non-Arabic song on Emirati airwaves. The song was a link with their homeland, said Mr Vijayan, 57, who moved to Dubai 35 years ago from the Indian state of Kerala.

"I cannot explain how much joy we felt that day," he recalled. "My heart felt very happy when I heard that song." Things have changed since then, with more than 30 radio stations jostling for listeners in the Emirates. A new Malayalam-language station joined the crowd this month, bringing the count to five stations broadcasting programmes ranging from news to music in the south Indian language. Two of those broadcast exclusively in Malayalam, which is spoken by a majority of the UAE's more than 1.75 million Indian expatriates. While listeners often complain of overcrowding and interference between stations, Mr Vijayan believes that being spoilt for choice is better than no choice at all.

"I never listen to CDs in my car, I only listen to the radio," he said. "The best thing is you can shift and choose, so it's your choice." The newest station, Gold FM 101.3, hopes to tap into the big Malayalee community that Channel 4 Radio Network estimates is 800,000 strong. Advertisements play on the Indian love for gold with the station's tag line: "24-carat pure fun". It plays contemporary Malayalam hits and will likely offer news later in the year.

"There is a huge expat Malayalee crowd from the 70s and their kids speak Hindi and English, but they still love Malayalam music," said Nidhi Sudhan, the programming director of Gold 101.3. "We felt the market pulse." There are more foreign-language radio stations in the UAE than any other country in the region. English, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Tagalog stations compete with Arabic broadcasters to be the dominant voices on the airwaves.

The Federal National Council (FNC) has often called for more local programming. An FNC report released in March highlighted concerns that dialogue on national identity was absent. While the FNC member Mohammed al Zaabi said he was not against foreign-language stations, he said the reach of local radio should be extended across the Emirates. "All [stations] should have good programming and respect the feelings and rules of this country," he said. "We have freedom in this country for other languages [on radio] and they must show respect."

Dr Tom Hundley, a professor of communication and information studies at the Mohammed bin Rashid School for Communication, agreed that the Government should encourage local language programming, just not at the expense of inhibiting another community's voice. "To my way of thinking there's no such thing as too many voices," he said. @Email:[e-mail]