Radio Liban

Radio Liban operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Information. Radio Liban was founded in 1938 under the presidency of Emile Eddé. Initially called Radio al-Sharq (Radio Orient), it was located in the Serail building in Beirut, which formerly housed the Prime Minister’s office and currently houses the Ministry of the Interior. Albert Adib (a Lebanese writer and poet born in 1908) became the first national director appointed to manage Radio Liban along with the famous Lebanese poet Said Akl as Arabic broadcaster. In April 1946, the Lebanese government took over the radio station from the French Mandate which used to broadcast in both Arabic and French. It became part of the Ministry of Information and Tourism under a new name: Mahattat al-Itha’a al-Lubnaniya (Lebanese Radio Station). The German Siemens provided technical support to the radio station project, which included seven studios, a recording library, and a transmission station in Amshit, 45 km north of Beirut. With the beginning of the Lebanese war in 1975, the radio station faced difficult circumstances as its transmission stations were damaged, interrupting communications between them and the headquarters in Beirut. After the Taif Agreement, Radio Liban progressively recovered its broadcast with the help of foreign donors and in 2003 entered a partnership with Radio France International (RFI) when two studios were set up for the French programming available on 96.2 FM.

For the Arabic programming, the radio includes seven main studios with new equipment supplied and installed by the Swiss Studer company in 2007. It operates on 98.1 and 98.5 FM. Its radio recording library is considered one of the richest in the Middle East. It contains thousands of programs, music and song recordings by Lebanese, Arab, and foreign artists and singers who passed through during its golden age and recorded their music in the studios. Mohamad Ghareeb is currently its general manager.