(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) With a licence from the Ministry of Information, BBC has become the only international FM radio broadcaster in Oman.
The 24-hour radio stations are available on 103.2 FM for BBC World Service English and 89.8 FM for BBC Arabic in Muscat governorate, to start with. Earlier, audiences used to access BBC's English service on shortwave and the Arabic stream online.
Launching the services at Crowne Plaza Muscat on Tuesday, H E Dr Abdulmunim bin Mansour bin Said al Hasani, Minister of Information, said, ''Our relationship with British media in general and with the BBC in particular goes back a long time, in terms of exchange of expertise, training and broadcasting. Thanks to the BBC for letting people in Muscat know the world from you.''
BBC will be working with broadcaster Entertainment Network to manage the FM services. A BBC Arabic team will be in Oman in the coming weeks to record a programme, said its editor Adel Soliman; the show will be presented by Mahmoud al Musallami.
''As part of BBC Arabic's attempts to report some of the activities taking place in Oman for our listeners, we will also be covering one of the seminars in April which is concerned with developing jurisprudence,'' Soliman said, adding that the broadcaster earlier had a correspondent in Oman, but there is none now.
Oman was always there on BBC Arabic's radio map, he said. ''We produced a number of series in Oman about its culture, civilisation and tourist attractions.
''It (FM service) is a chance for listening to the same content of the BBC service but with better quality and we hope this will be a chance for more communication with Oman in specific and with the Gulf in particular,'' he added.
Simon Kendall, head of business development for BBC World Service, said, ''What we hope is that these kind of FMs will not only bring the world in, but will also mean that more news and information about cultural aspects and anything else of interest happening in Oman will be broadcast around the world. I am sure as a result of this, there will be increased interest in getting closer to audiences in Om
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