DOHA AFTER embarking on a successful website, the Founder of iLoveQatar.net, Khalifa Haroon, is now planning to start the first digital radio station, in a date yet to be established. Once established, it will be the third English station, after the Qatar Broadcasting Service and Qatar Foundation Radio. Haroon was speaking on Monday on the sidelines of a Summer Programme at NorthWestern University where top media figures in Qatar have been invited to inspire the students. “We have talked to the license providers and we are at a stage where we are looking to come up with capital and then we can get started. Companies like Morgan Stanley and Heart Radio are interested to see how they can help us fund such a project,” he said. According to Haroon his plan is to make the station digital once they get the funds. “My plan is to go digital if we can get the funding. I want this station to be the first digital radio station in Qatar,” he added. Eighty five percent of the content that the station will air will be in English while the 15 percent will be in Arabic. “We already have a number of Qataris who are interested in DJ-ing, which is unique in the sense that they will be talking in English and using Arabic words here in and there just like the way the young generation speaks.” He said that the station will give an opportunity to the non- Arabic speakers to learn Arabic through its programmes. The station will include talk shows where people can talk about issues as well as entertainment programmes including Arabic pop music as well as Westernised. “We will encourage people to share thoughts that are important to them as well as to the community. We will also have public segments that talk about the basics of for example Islam, the difference between culture and religion and culture etiquette,” he said. According to Haroon, the station plans to help expat in culture orientation, once they arrive in Doha. The radio station will feature lots of entertainment programmes including other additional ones. “We will put entertainment that is expected at certain times, like real drive time music during drive time! I feel our station is a station that people have been wanting for so long, but of course its all in the planning stage.” http://www.qatar-tribune.com/data/20120710/content.asp?section=world1_7 Updated by ILQ

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