WASHINGTON - A US-funded Arabic-language radio network launched to stem rising anti-American sentiment in the Middle East has become the top broadcaster in Morocco's two largest cities, officials said Tuesday.
After six months on the air, Radio Sawa is now the number one station among the coveted youth audience in Rabat and Casablanca, they said, citing a survey by global media ratings giant AC Nielson.
That survey, conducted in February and March, found that 73 percent of all radio listeners 15 years and older in the two cities tuned in to Radio Sawa every week, more than any other station, the officials said.
Eighty-eight percent of listeners under 30 and 64 percent of those over 30 reported said they tuned in weekly to Radio Sawa, which offers a mix of English and Arabic pop music and news programming, they said.
"We had high hopes for our Moroccan version of Radio Sawa but I am very pleased at how quickly its popularity has grown," said Norman Pattiz, Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Middle East Committee, which oversees the operation.
Radio Sawa was dismissed as a lightweight replacement for the Arabic-language broadcast of Voice of America when it went on the air in March 2002.
But it now has an average listenership of 31.6 percent of the general population in Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, making it the leading station in those countries, according to an earlier Nielsen survey conducted in August and September.
Its newscasts are designed to present "accurate and balanced information about events in the Middle East and the world" and the latest Nielsen survey found that 77 percent of Radio Sawas audience considered its news "reliable," according to a BBG statement.
The BBG is an independent and autonomous congressionally funded US federal agency which operates the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and TV Marti and alHurra, a new Middle East satellite television network.
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