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Arab-American Journalists Launch Simultaneous Radio Broadcast
It is not unusual for two Arab Americans to spend an hour talking freely about current political issues, but veteran journalists Ray Hanania and Laila Alhusinni have taken it to a whole new level.
On February 12, Hanania and Alhusinni launched the radio talk show Radio Baladi simultaneously from two American cities. Jointly hosted between the two journalists, Radio Baladi aspires to spark discussion about Middle East issues among Arab and Muslim Americans as well as the broader American public. Local and national decisionmakers are also a target audience.
Judging from the initial response, their show is a success.
“I wasn’t expecting people to call us from outside our listening area, but we even had a call from Orlando, Florida,” Alhusinni told America.gov about Radio Baladi’s first broadcast. Along with its radio broadcast, Radio Baladi is streamed live and podcast.
Radio Baladi is a merging of Alhusinni’s Good Morning Michigan radio program with Hanania’s Mornings with Ray Hanania and reaches the country’s largest Arab-American populations, located in northern Illinois and Michigan. Broadcast in English for an hour on Friday mornings — 7–8 a.m. in Chicago and 8–9 a.m. in Dearborn, Michigan, one time zone away — the talk show tackles issues of interest to Arab and Muslim Americans.
“We are trying to demonstrate, by linking our stations, that we shouldn’t be ignored,” Hanania said. “We want them to know that we are doing our best to serve as a communications network with our community.”
An award-winning journalist of Palestinian origin, Hanania has more than 30 years’ reporting experience and writes for the Jerusalem Post and a Palestinian online news site, PalestineNote.com. Hanania also has 12 years’ experience with radio in the Chicago area. Alhussini, of Syrian origin, has a background in television and radio and hosts her Good Morning Michigan show in both English and in Arabic.
Radio Baladi seeks to distinguish itself from some advocacy-driven Arab-American media by focusing on caller views and opinions.
“We want to engage people, we want to get them talking,” Hanania said. “We want to get the people in the community to do the talking.”
Alhusinni is in total agreement. Contrasting her negative experience with freedom of expression in some Arab countries to her experience in the United States, she looks forward to fielding tough questions on air.
“We were not comfortable with every question we received,” Alhusinni said of the first broadcast. “But we want to hear all opinions because that is how you open dialogue with American society.”
The first segment of Radio Baladi’s opening broadcast featured a discussion with prominent Muslim-American attorney Lena Masri on the hijab and women’s rights. For the second half-hour, listeners followed a discussion with Khaled Almaeena, editor-in-chief of Riyadh-based Arab News, one of the leading English-language newspapers in the Arab world.
With Radio Baladi’s initial success, Hanania and Alhusinni are looking to expand the show into other markets. One possibility is to take Radio Baladi’s simultaneous broadcast to the nation’s capital region.
“By moving to Washington, D.C., we will expand the participation of our audience with issues important to us,” Alhusinni said. “And this is not just for us, the Muslim-American community or the Arab-American community, but for everyone who is listening.”
M. Scott Bortot
America.gov