Top 40 Radio Thriving In Amman, Jordan (5 CHRs)

[CHRles]

5 years ago the closest thing Jordan had to a CHR was state-owned Radio Jordan. Since that time it's capital and largest city, Amman, has become a hotbed for Top 40 radio with no less then 5 Top 40 radio stations.
The first on the scene was Play FM followed by Beat FM, Ahlen FM, and Radio Energy. The newest of the bunch is Spin FM, which can also be heard in a couple of Jordan's other big cities, and will soon be heard in the southern tourism-based city of Aquaba.

Ahlen FM is the station where one can hear American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, MTV's TRL Countdown. In general though Ahlen FM is known to lean a bit older then the rest of the CHRs, and just lets the music talk with no DJs.

Play FM is very Dance friendly, breaks a lot of new music, and airs the World Chart Show with Lara Scott.

Beat FM is Hip Hop friendly, and the first station in Jordan to air a Hip Hop show. Its playlist is huge and doesnt ignore Dance nor Rock. It also airs a weekly Rock show, a daily Dance mixshow at 6 PM, and airs the Hedkandi show (House music).

Spin Jordan is owned by the same company that owns Spin 103.8 in Dublin, Ireland. Playing a lot of new music, it has a balanced playlist, and is likely to make a big impact on the scene in the coming months.

Radio Energy is a very common name over in Europe, and there's also a Radio Energy in Beirut, Lebanon. Very similar music philosophy to most of the other CHRs in that it too targets either the 15-30 or 18-34 year old crowd.

It's worth noting that all stations broadcast in English rather in Arabic. That also seems to be the case with other CHRs around the Middle East, such as Nile FM Cairo, Virgin FM in Dubai, and the three big CHRs in Lebanon (Radio One, Mix FM, and Energy).

Here are the links to the stations and their streams:

Play 99.6 Amman http://www.play.jo/
32 K http://asx.abacast.com/996_amman-radio-32.asx

Beat FM 102.5 Amman http://www.mybeat.fm/
32 K mms://64.225.157.204/beat

Spin Jordan 94.1 Amman/88.3 Irbid/88.5 Ma'an http://spin.jo/
128 K http://spin.jo/player/

Radio Energy 97.7 Amman http://radioenergy.fm/
40 K mms://energy.batelco.jo/energy32

Ahlen FM 97.1 Amman http://www.ahlenfm.com/
64 K mms://www.ahlenfm.com/ahlenfmhighspeed

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Play and Beat are both kinda similar to Z1035..Play is like the Toronto Z,, while Beat is more like the Halifax Z-1035.

I havent heard the other two stations yet.. But I always thought Ahlem was more of a Hot AC or Adult top 40.

Energy should be pretty good and should probably be playing some Dance like most Energy's do.

I dont know about Spin.. I dont really care for the ones in Ireland,, either Spin in Dublin, and also Spin Southwest, which also webcasts by the way seem like they dont play much Rhythm and Dance, but maybe ive listened during the wrong dayparts,, I know Spin in Dublin used to play alot of Dance and hip Hop.

I love Nile FM in Cairo,,, you would never think that station is in Egypt of all places,,, but they do have certain dayparts that make me tune out,, like their Flashback lunch is all music from the 50s through the 80s,, and they have a Chill Out Show at 3 PM everyday,, but they do have alot of good Dance specialty shows mainly on weekends,, but they also have a two hour Hip Hop show on weekends, and they have a Rock show too, which includes new modern Rock, all the way back to like AC/DC and GNR.... Some Nile FM DJs speak some arabic mixed in with english, but the rest usually have a british or american accent.. Ive read that Nile FM is the place where DJs go that cant get jobs anywhere else, and that the pay is not good.... but I dont know.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Also, Chrles, do you think Baghdad could someday get another CHR in English like Hot FM 104.1 was before they got hit by Terrorist bombs in 2004.

After the tension ends in Iraq, could Baghdad support a station like Play fm in Jordan, or something like Nile fm in Cairo, or are they just too Anti American anti European to embrace it.. Ive read that Uday Hussain had an American-European POP station on AM before the War called Voice of Youth,, but most people just called it FM,,, Even though it was only an AM station,, I heard that this station spoke english and played American and European POP,,, Dance hits from Ibizia, and Middle of the road 80s and 90s hits... Of course the purpose of this station and their TV station which aired pirated Hollywood movies was just to manipulate the youth so they would think Uday was cool, even though he was a sick evil person who used an Iron Maiden to kill soccer players that lost games,, among many other sick and twisted things he did....

 

[Geek Boy]

I love Nile FM in Cairo,,, you would never think that station is in Egypt of all places,,, but they do have certain dayparts that make me tune out,, like their Flashback lunch is all music from the 50s through the 80s,, and they have a Chill Out Show at 3 PM everyday,, but they do have alot of good Dance specialty shows mainly on weekends,, but they also have a two hour Hip Hop show on weekends, and they have a Rock show too, which includes new modern Rock, all the way back to like AC/DC and GNR.... Some Nile FM DJs speak some arabic mixed in with english, but the rest usually have a british or american accent.. Ive read that Nile FM is the place where DJs go that cant get jobs anywhere else, and that the pay is not good.... but I dont know.

I launched Nile FM in Cairo in 2003. At the time I was was working for Classic Gold in the UK and fancied a change in scenery. Nile FM was still in the planning stages at the time and when I got the gig, I flew out to Egypt to get them set up. We went live August 9th 2003 as a CHR. Once the station was up and running I moved to Channel 4 in Dubai where I am now PD.

Nile FM these days is what we would call a trainwreck musically. However, it works in this market. Thesre are no audience figures as such, but as Cairo's population is 20 million you are looking at big numbers. As for the pay, I don't know what the western jocks get there these days, but it won't be big bucks at all.

Radio in general, not just Jordan, is booming at the moment. While the US and UK network more and more, the Middle East is seeing more and more stations opening up. Dubai and the UAE currently has 27 stations (7 of which are English) with another 3 being planned in 2009.

 

[CHRles]

Hey Geek Boy, thx for responding to this thread. Your input is greatly appreciated.
I've noticed that Channel 4 104.8 FM in Dubai now skews Adult CHR whereas before it was Dubai's CHR/Pop station. I'm thinking this is probably in response to the debut of Virgin Radio on 104.4. Aren't you now competing head to head with Dubai 92 (which itself was once Dubai's CHR station in the 90s) ?

 

[Geek Boy]

Hey Geek Boy, thx for responding to this thread. Your input is greatly appreciated.
I've noticed that Channel 4 104.8 FM in Dubai now skews Adult CHR whereas before it was Dubai's CHR/Pop station. I'm thinking this is probably in response to the debut of Virgin Radio on 104.4. Aren't you now competing head to head with Dubai 92 (which itself was once Dubai's CHR station in the 90s) ?

Hey CHRles,

Channel 4 went Hot AC some 3 years ago, however we did have a dayparted CHR request show from 7-10pm. Now we are Hot AC 24/7. Some of our sample hours are on the Hot AC board -

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,110563.0.html

As for 92, they only recently flipped to Hot AC so yes we are competing!

 

[Mid West Clubber]

So anyway 92 used to play a bit of dance Music,,, do they still air Matt Darey's Nocturnal show? Also,, Isnt Channel 4 owned by the same company as 98.8 in Baghdad??? Would that happen to be a Hot AC or CHR as well????

Also,, Nile fm back in 2005 and 2006 was pretty good except for a few dayparts,, also isnt it somewhat government regulated and also avaliable in Iraq via Satelite as well as most of Africa?

Also, do you think if a real CHR like Play 99.6 in Jordan signed on in Cairo it would force Nile FM to go the AC route.... It can be confusing depending 0n the daypart or even what day you tune into Nile fm,,, Is it CHR,, is it Dance,, is it Hot AC... Ya know... Most of the DJs sound fairly young and inexperienced.... Even the morning show.. Cairo looks really beautiful in some parts,,, but also very slummy in others.