Iran media watch: Radio Iran turns 65

BBC Monitoring research
28 Apr 05

Radio Iran turned 65 on Sunday 24 April. The station was launched
in two rooms at the Tehran Telegraph Centre , and it broadcast the
news in five foreign languages from the first day it went on air,
24 April 1940.

Early days

On its first day, Radio Iran started its programme at 1700 and signed
off at 2230 local time . On its second day it broadcast its programmes
in two parts , part one lasting from 1130-1400 local time, and part
two from 1715-2330. From this day on, Radio Iran broadcast two daily
commentaries in addition to news and music.

As World War II broke out, the development of Radio Iran came to
a standstill and was not resumed until 1947, when new transmitters
were bought for installation in a new building intended as production
studios. These studios were officially opened in 1961. In the meantime,
12 radio stations were set up in provincial capitals.

In its early years Iranian Radio was part of the Ministry of Post,
Telephones and Telegraph. Later on a Publication and Propaganda
section was set up at the Prime Minister’s Office to take care of
affairs relating to the radio. This office was later handed over
to the Labour Ministry, but reverted again to the Prime Minister’s
Office in 1947. In 1953 the Publication and Propaganda Office became
an independent organization. The radio later became a part of the
Ministry of Information in 1963 . In July 1971, National Iranian
Radio and Television was established. Radio Iran was part of this
organization until the Islamic revolution in 1979, when radio and
television became part of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
(IRIB).

Iranian Radio after the 1979 revolution

Between 1979 and the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, the country’s
main radio station was the national channel of Radio Iran , officially
known as the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. After the war,
and along with the economic development which started during the
first term of Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani’s presidency in the early
1990s, several other national and local radio stations were set up
in Iran. One of the most successful ones was Radio Payam, a local
station for Tehran , broadcasting travel news as well as a variety
of programmes featuring extensive use of Iranian music.

The Iranian capital, Tehran, enjoys the luxury of two local channels ,
Radio Tehran and Radio Payam and a range of national stations which
are available on medium wave and FM all over Iran. These national
stations are:

1.Radio Iran ( national network)

This is Iran’s main radio station and the Iranian government’s
official voice.

Apart from news and current affairs, this station broadcasts a range of
cultural, social and entertainment programmes made in its production
groups: Social, art and culture, economy, Islamic culture, knowledge,
children and young adults, politics, history and holy defence.

Listeners who are interested in the news usually tune in to one of the
main news bulletins on this station at 0430, 0930, 1630 and 1730 gmt.

2. Youth (Javan) network

This is a 24-hour -a day channel intended to meet the intellectual
needs of Iranian youth. This channel, like many others was set up
to counter what Iranian officials described as the “Western cultural
invasion”, meaning the influx of foreign programmes beamed into Iran
via satellite television. The channel mainly discusses cultural and
social issues and broadcasts plenty of music.

3. Sports (Varzesh) network

This is a 24 – hour -a – day channel with about six hours of repeat
programmes after midnight. It is exclusively about sport.

4. Health (Salamat) network

This channel broadcasts programmes about public health four hours a
day from 1000 to 1400 local time??? .

5. The Koran network

This channel broadcasts recitations of the holy Koran 24 hours a
day. Other programmes include discussions about the Koran and the
news of Koran-related events in Iran and abroad.

6. Culture (Farhang) network

This channel broadcasts its programmes from 0500 2400 Tehran
time. This channel’s programmes are mainly on music, art, literature
and Iranian studies. This channel also broadcasts the debates of
Iranian nParliament, the Majlis, though not regularly.

7. Islamic culture (Ma’aref) network

This 24 -hour -a- day channel broadcasts programmes relating to
Islamic studies, the Shi’i version of Shari’ah and the rules of
prayers, fasting and other Islamic rites.

Provincial radio

These radio stations are available in various provinces, which have
their own provincial radio stations too.

Local languages and dialects

Until the early 1960s, Iranian radio broadcast 15 minutes of
programmes in Azeri and 15 minutes in Kurdish for the two largest
ethnic minorities of the country. The broadcasts stopped in late 1960
when provincial stations started to broadcast a major part of their
daily programme in local languages and dialects. However, this ended
in the early 1970s, when Persian became the only official language
for all programmes, regional and national.

External services

Meanwhile the external services of Radio Iran broadcasts programmes,
including news and political commentaries, in 25 languages. These
languages are: Arabic, Albanian, Armenian, Bangladeshi, Bosnian,
Chinese, Dari, English, French German, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi,
Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Kiswahili, Kurdish, Pashtu,
Russian, Spanish, Tajiki, Turkish and Urdu.

Newsgathering

After the early 1970s, Iranian radio made its newsgathering
independent of the national news agency (then Pars News Agency,
now IRNA) and established its own newsgathering service, Central
News Bureau (CNB). This in-house news agency also offers stories and
commentaries to newspapers but very few of them use CNB stories and
dispatches. Central News Bureau is the only permitted news source
across IRIB’s widespread national network. Even international news
can be broadcast only when “processed” by CNB.