Racy Radio Excites Capital

A small radio peeks out of a woman's burqa near the communications ministry. It's tuned to 98.1 FM - Radio Arman - the racy station that has everyone in Kabul talking.

"I always listen to this station - even when I am doing the housework," enthused Farzana, the woman beneath the burqa. "When I sweep the house I hold the radio in one hand and do the sweeping with the other. I also listen to Kilid radio which also broadcasts good songs."

Taxi driver Amin agrees with her, "Arman is always on, whether I am driving or not."

And Mohammad Daud, who sells radios and tape recorders in front of the culture and information ministry, is also a fan, "After the establishment of Radio Arman my business has improved consistently. I now sell between five and eight radios a day."

With its mix of Bollywood hits, local Afghan favourites, traffic reports and irreverent banter between male and female hosts, Arman is a far cry from the time when Radio Shari'ia and its narrow schedule of religious programming was the only local listening choice.

And even with Radio Afghanistan reclaiming its original name, the state broadcaster's line-up of informative programming and old classical music appears staid in comparison to a growing band of competitors in the private sector.

"The independent radio stations can broadcast popular programmes, but we are not allowed to," Radio Afghanistan's studio manager Engineer Mohammad Nasir told IWPR. "One officer told us to broadcast women's songs for a week, which is bad for radio, so in this case people don't listen."

And, indeed, since the fall of the Taleban regime there are far more stations to listen to, now that foreign broadcasters are able to transmit on local FM bands.

Locally, broadcasts by international coalition and peacekeeping forces have been joined by the female-operated Voice of Afghan Women and newcomer Radio Kilid - an offshoot of a popular local magazine.

Kilid's station director Mohammad Paktin told IWPR that they wanted to broadcast "cultural information, entertainment and educational programmes to develop people's opinions".

But it is Arman, the brainchild of three Afghan businessmen brothers who recently returned from Australia, that has caused a real buzz since it took to the air in April.

Even its offices stand out, decorated as they are with large posters of scantily clad pop stars on the walls. And station director Sayed Sulaiman Ashna, who unusually for Afghanistan is clad all in black, is clear that they aim to be different.

"Unlike Radio Afghanistan, the BBC or other stations we don't want to produce political programmes, deep analysis or any government-related stuff," he told IWPR.

"Rather we want to talk simply and commonly and we have allocated most of the time to music because it is of interest to people."

Run as a business interest, it is also unusual in seeking advertisements, charging foreign organisations up to 70 US dollars a minute for a spot. Its press releases claim a 94 per cent listenership in Kabul - currently the only area of transmission - although such figures are currently impossible to verify.

Certainly not everyone is taken by the new broadcasting style. Local resident Mohammad Anwar told IWPR that he despaired of the station's content, "They actually mock professional and intelligent commentators."

Ataullah Painda, a teacher at Esteqlal High School, complained that the presenters sound ignorant, "They don't know about Dari literature. Instead of Qafia they say Qiafa. They cover their mistakes by playing colourful songs."

But while local elitists may refer to it disparagingly as "taxi radio", Ashna is proud of their wide reach and boasts that its success is actually driving certain sectors of the economy out of business.

"Hawkers, carpenters and labourers can't afford to buy tape players but now we are playing their favourite songs through this radio. Arman has replaced cassettes and tape players," he said.

However, cassette dealer Khair Khana seems happy enough, saying that the station has actually driven up demand, "When a listener hears a favourite song on Arman he then comes to buy other songs of the same [Bollywood] movie from us."

It all seems a long way from when the United States controversially bombed Radio Sharia's Kabul transmitter in October 2001 as part of its "PsyOps". Its own propaganda efforts followed, promising large rewards for turning in high-profile Taleban figures and urging the population not to be afraid and to try the food parcels being dropped by air.

It was not until February 2002 that private broadcasting was the officially allowed for the first time with the first independent station being the former Northern Alliance mouthpiece Radio Solh, based in Jabalsaraj just north of Kabul.

The deputy minister of culture and information, Abdul Hamid Mobariz, promises a hands-off approach, stating, "As long as they relay programmes according to press law we do not interfere in their work. It is their right to broadcast as they wish."

Not that there haven't been problems, with Radio Kilid saying that it had been authorised to transmit on 88.5 FM only to find the frequency used by another station.

The battle now appears set to take to the small screen, with four groups competing to be the first independent television station.

Hasina Sulaiman and Lailuma Sadid are independent journalists in Kabul undergoing IWPR training.