Radio as we know it has been around for more than 60 years in the UAE.

Prior to the UAE’s formation, the British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBC) had a local FM radio studio here.

It ran syndicated entertainment programmes and read news about the command to it garrisons stationed in the then Trucial States.

In the late 70’s, UAE Radio started independent services. Channel 4 was the first commercial radio station followed by Emirates Media Radio and the Arab Media Group.

Today, independent radio stations in the UAE include 7 each in English and Hindi, 12 Arabic, 4 Malayalam, and one each in Tamil, Tagalog, Russian and Farsi.

Sources: Richard Coram of The Talent Brokers, Digby Taylor , Business Development Manager and Muntazir Pyarali Head of Broadcast Engineering,

GN Broadcasting.