Al-Bayan (radio station)
Radio station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Al-Bayan (Arabic: البيان, romanized: al-Bayān, lit. 'The Statement') is the Islamic State's official radio station,[1] formerly based in Iraq, owned and operated by the Islamic State, which broadcast at 92.5 on the FM dial. The station aired a news-talk format and broadcasts in the Arabic, Kurdish, English, French, and Russian languages.[2]
- Islamic State
- (unlicensed)
| |
| Broadcast area |  Syria Iraq Libya |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Languages | Arabic, Kurdish, English, French, Russian and other languages |
| Format | Religious, news, talk, terrorist propaganda |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | 2014-2018 |
Originating from Mosul, Al-Bayan programs were credited with being "highly professional and slickly produced" and were sometimes compared to NPR and the BBC for tone and quality.[3][4][5] Al-Bayan's reporting on IS military operations had been referenced by the Associated Press and The Washington Post''.[6][7] The station stopped broadcasting after IS lost most of its bases in Iraq and Syria and after the radio station was destroyed by an air raid.[8]
Broadcasts by IS resumed later from Sirte, Libya under the station name "Radio Al-Tawheed".
Beginnings
The first broadcast of Al-Bayan Radio was launched in late 2014, which initially provided newscasts, then some other programs were added in April 2015.[9][10] The station offered a wide range of programming including nasheed, Quran recitations, speeches, Fiqh, language instruction, and interview shows, interspersed with regular news bulletins and field reports from Al-Bayan correspondents in Iraq and Syria.[11] English-language news bulletins were delivered by an American-accented, male newsreader and datelines are read in the Islamic calendar.[3]
Android application
In early 2016, Al-Bayan released an Android application, they uploaded the APK file on the Internet Archive and onion websites since the app could not be downloaded on the Google Play Store.[12] They spread the app through social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram.[13]
Frequencies
Known frequencies (October 2016) were:
- Iraq: Mosul 92.5/99.3 FM;
- Syria: Raqqah 99.9 FM[14]
- Libya: Benghazi 94.3 FM (irregular)[15]
- Libya: Darnah 95.5 FM (irregular)[15]
The station in Mosul was reported to have gone off-air after an air strike on it in late February 2017 as part of the Battle of Mosul.[16] Iraqi forces discovered the station in March 2017 in an upscale western Mosul neighborhood they captured. IS had burnt it down before fleeing.[17]
Libyan broadcasts
In February 2015, IS captured a radio station called "Makmadas" in Sirte, Libya. It was nominally run by Ansar Al-Sharia in Libya, which made it unclear whether that station was under IS management.[18] An IS-owned satellite television station and a powerful radio station on 94.3 FM, also based out of Sirte and operating under the brand name "Al-Tawheed," began broadcasting the previous October 2014. Radio Al-Tawheed (former Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation transmitter) have 10 kilowatts output power and is received in Europe via sporadic E propagation.[19]
The station operated in 2015 and 2016 before being overrun by Libyan forces,[20] and ISIS created an Android app for it.[21] In spite of it, IS supporters promotes on 1 May 2019 an Al-Bayan internet radio station to release its contents.[22] It is also being active in social media like Facebook or TikTok.[23]