Voix du Liban 93.3

Voix du Liban (VDL) was the first private radio station in Lebanon. Owned by the Phalange (Kataeb) Party, it attempted to start broadcasting in 1958 but its activity was suspended by its founders after the end of a three-month civil conflict that year. It resumed broadcast in 1975 as the first private, commercial, partisan radio station in the country. In the mid-1990s, the Audiovisual Media Law was put into effect to regulate broadcasting in Lebanon and distribute licenses. Pursuant to this law, the Société Moderne d’Information SAL obtained the license to operate VDL, broadcasting on 93.3 FM, granted by the Council of Ministers. However, the issue of ownership became the subject of a legal controversy between the Phalange Party, the initial owner in 1975, and the Société Moderne d’Information, represented by the heirs of the late Simon al-Khazen – the former vice-president of the Phalange Party – who have been running the radio station since the 1990s, leading to a split between two radio stations carrying the same name.

When the split happen in 2010, the Société Moderne d’Information-owned VDL moved from Beirut to Dbayeh, north of Beirut, and has been broadcasting on the following FM wavelengths: 93.3 in Beirut, 93.5 in northern Lebanon, and 93.1 in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, Batroun, and Akkar. It has media partnership agreements with a number of major stations, such as Radio Middle East in Canada which relays VDL 93.3 news. VDL 93.3 also retransmits news and radio programs from BBC Arabic, Germany’s Arabic Deutsche Welle channel, the Russian Sputnik Arabic radio, and the Lebanese MTV channel. It provides news bulletins, as well as political, economic and social programs, interviews, music, songs, culture and arts. The current CEO is Imad Al-Khazen, the Editor-in-Chief is Taheya Qandil, the finance and administrative director is Petro Milan and the program director is Chadi Maalouf.