Lina Chawaf, programme manager at Radio Arabesque in Syria. Photo: Rasmus Steen/IMS.

Geographical and cultural differences dissipated, when two radio programme managers met in Damascus. Read the personal account of Kerstin Ohlenschlæger, programme manager of P3 at Danish Broadcast Comany who met her professional twin, Lina Chawaf at Radio Arabesque in Syria

A visit to Arabesque FM in Damascus

- a strong and growing radio station - and a strong and growing relation with Danish Broadcast Company's P3 in Denmark!

By Kerstin Ohlenschlæger

I arrive in Damascus just before sunset Friday afternoon. Lina Chawaf picks me up at the airport, and as we drive to town in the warm night, we see a lot of cars parked in the side of the highway, and families sitting on the side of the road with enormous picnic packs, small transportable barbecues, blankets and ball games - it's Friday night all right!
"Of course people are not allowed to park on the highway", Lina says with a smile, "but this is Syria - people do all sorts of things that isn't allowed".

I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time - it has been almost three years since I first met Lina and heard of her radio station Arabesque FM - the radio station, that was then brand new, and one of the first private radio stations in Syria.

Four years ago the only Syrian radio was the Republics own, but then the legislation was altered and commercial and local radios were allowed. Arabesque was one of the first - and is now the biggest private radio station in Syria covering the whole country. It began with only nonstop music and jingles - now it hosts the most popular morning show in Syria, it has popular DJ's, entertainment programmes, debates and outgoing reporters. Arabesque also makes big events - like the DJ event last summer where we brought a DJ from Denmark together with DJ Firas from Arabesque, and broadcasted it in both Denmark and Syria.

Because it's Friday night, we don't go to work straight away - but go out into the busy Damascene night instead. And then again - I lie a little when I say we don't work, because over dinner we have a lot to talk about, Lina and I. We discover, that during the past year that has gone by since we met in Copenhagen, we have had similar problems to deal with as programme managers: Hosts that become stars maybe a little bit too quickly for their own good; programmes that don't work too well; how to deal with staff that don't get along and a thousand other big and small issues that connects our worlds - from Arabesque FM to DR P3 a big Public radio with 45 years of tradition, 3000 kilometres away, located in Denmark. Twinning is definitely the right term for this sort of collaboration!

Saturday Morning

I attend the morning show. There has been a change of staff and the three hosts and one reporter who is out doing lives in the city, have been on air together for three weeks only. Though I can' t speak Arabic I can understand quite a lot of what is going on, and after the show we are talking about how the team can improve the clarity of their roles - and make sure, the reporter's interviews are more to the point. It's interesting for us to compare the similarities and the differences between their morning show and our own at DR P3.

Saturday evening

I'm in the control room with Lina, the weekly debate programme is just starting, and there is tangible excitement both here and in the studio where host Obaidah Zytoon now introduces the show - waiting for the first listeners to call in. The subject today is: "What would you do if you found out that a relative to you was cheating his or her husband?"
It is a subject that creates both strong views and strong emotions - and Lina explains to me that many of the callers actually are angry about them taking up this subject in the first place - other listeners welcome the discussion.

Sunday

I attend the morning show again - and I also spend time with Mahmoud - the producer, technical wizard and backbone of the station. He plays pieces for me that he has produced himself, among them a video that the station made for their homepage in connection with a big party Arabesque held at the third birthday of the radio station. It makes me think about how we could connect our stations better by exchanging small videos, because that will partly solve some of our language problems. I have also brought items for him to listen to - for instance some newly produced sketches that use a lot of sound effects. Some of them could actually be remade the Syrian way, he thinks.

In the evening we meet with Lamis Makhlouf, the Manager of the Private Radio Stations Department in the Ministry of Information. She explains to me that there are now over 30 radios in Syria but only two of them cover the whole country. A third one has maybe 80 % coverage as it broadcasts in the big cities. It is indeed a fast growing market!

Monday - last day at Arabesque

Lina and I had a meeting where we discussed possibilities for future collaboration - for instance about the possibility that Radio Arabesque may make a show similar to our show "Mads og Monopolet" at P3. We would also like to make a documentary together with a host from each station trading lives for some time, and we would also like to organize a music exchange in some way again. But maybe most of all, this is a rewarding exchange between Lina and myself concerning the management of radio stations!