Riding the airwaves

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ARN staff at work at Dubai Media City.

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ARN staff at work at Dubai Media City.

Until early this year, all of Arabian Radio Network's eight channels were located at Dubai Media City. However, unable to accommodate any more expansion within the existing facility, four of the radio arm's channels moved early this year to the parent company's facility at Studio City.

ARN's GM maintains that although the radio channels have been split for logistical reasons, the old and the new facilities have the same equipment and offer the same quality of broadcast service to listeners.

The old facility, however, has only one backup studio while each of the four stations at DSC has one corresponding backup studio.

"The equipment is the same in both facilities. But we have more space in Studio City so each station has its own backup. What's different is Noor Dubai, which we launched last year. Noor Dubai has a special look because it is a radio TV. Its setup is different because it is broadcasting as well. Here, the presenter sits in front of the mixer and the camera films him in a radio broadcast environment. Since we are showing the radio environment on TV, it's a different setup," Al Rasheed explains.

An interesting point to note is also how the present economic downturn has suddenly played up the importance of radio.

With less money to spend on more expensive media such as television and print, Al Rasheed believes that more companies will see the value of advertising on radio.

"In the past, companies used to allocate only about 2 or 3% of their budget to radio. They failed to understand that this was one medium that had a lot more peak hours than any other medium while also giving them a cheaper means of advertising and perhaps, more visibility. The peak times for television are usually thought to be after 7 or 8 pm. For radio, there's morning when everyone's going to work, there's evening when everyone's returning home and there's all the time in between if you look at the roads and see how much traffic there is at any hour of the day in Dubai."

As a result, ARN, which has maintained a fairly low profile in the past, kicked off a series of educational seminars last month for the business community to explain why they needed to incorporate radio into their daily marketing mix.

"We are running a strong marketing campaign and have won a lot of new business as a result," explains Al Rasheed.

Besides the fact that ARN's studios at DMC were in need of a kit upgrade, there also seems to be another underlying reason for the network making itself more visible in other media.

Government-owned Abu Dhabi Media Company, which has three radio stations, is mulling an aggressive entry into the radio business this year with many new launches in Arabic and English. Besides this, there are also strong rumours that more radio stations are in the offing in Dubai as well from another state-backed media giant although this is unconfirmed.

With so much competition on the horizon, it is not surprising that Arabian Radio Network wants to remain on top of the game in terms of both technology as well as programmes to ensure it maintains its leading position.

COO Steve Smith, in the meantime, explains that ARN is ready for any competition that comes up.

"Depending on the formats that emerge, we might have to tweak our own programmes but we pretty much have the premium brands in the market for radio. We never sit back and say that we have done it all though. As we target three distinct cultures through our radio stations, namely Arabs, and English and Asian listeners, we don't have a one-size-fits-all arrangement. Radio is always a work in progress and we are constantly improving our technology and programming to ensure we remain the top player in this market," explains Smith.

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