Doha, Qatar: Radio Qatar will celebrate on Thursday, June 25, the 58th anniversary of the launch of its broadcast, recalling a long media career that began in 1968 and contributed to establishing its position as one of the nation's leading media institutions.
This milestone marked Qatar's progress and nation-building process, while reinforcing national identity and values of belonging and citizenship.
To mark the occasion, Radio Qatar will showcase a special program, Radio Qatar from Doha: The 58th Anniversary, featuring two prominent radio voices closely associated with listeners' memory and forming part of the station's institutional memory: veteran media figure Mohammed Ibrahim Al Sada and Dr. Ilham Badr.
They will come together in a joint presentation revisiting key milestones in the station's history and exploring its future prospects and media legacy.
The program combines historical documentation with a human dimension, revisiting key milestones in the history of Radio Qatar since its inception, through live testimonies and memories of media figures who contributed to shaping its development and witnessed its successive evolution.
The presenters will guide its segments in a narrative style that draws on the past with gratitude and respect, while envisioning the future with confidence and ambition, recalling a broadcasting journey spanning more than 58 years of continuous development and renewal.
This milestone allowed Radio Qatar to remain a leading national voice and a media and cultural platform supporting the state's development and aspirations.
On this occasion, the Director General of Radio Qatar, Jaber Mohammed Al Sorour, said the station has continued for over 58 years to carry out its media mission, scrupulously consolidating its position as one of the country's leading media institutions.
He highlighted that this journey of achievements hasn't been limited to technical development or increased broadcasting hours, but has been a continuous process of building awareness, reinforcing national identity, and strengthening values of belonging and citizenship.
Al Sorour added that Radio Qatar has consistently sought to keep pace with change and expand the scope of its media mission, launching the English-language service in 1971, followed by the Urdu service in 1980, the French service in 1985, while Radio Quran was launched in 1992, becoming one of the region's most prominent religious stations, before the addition of the Spanish service in 2022, reflecting the station's continued growth and outreach to new audiences.
He further explained that the Radio entered the digital space early by launching its website and developing its media platforms, keeping pace with rapid evolution in the world of communication and opening opportunities for new generations of Qatari media professionals to continue the path of media development.
Al Sorour recalled a number of programs that left a clear mark in listeners' memory, foremost among them "Qatar on the Road to Development", the first program broadcast on the day of its launch, which ran for more than twenty-five years, alongside programs such as Good Evening (Masa'kum Allah bil Khair), "Sawalif Mseiyan", "Around the World", "We Are With You", "What the Listeners Request", and "Politics and Politicians", as well as the two popular daily programs "My Beloved Country, Good Morning" and "Evening Doha," which formed a daily platform for dialogue and communication with the public.
The station continues to present a wide range of content combining culture, religion, society, entertainment, and news, in clear classical Arabic that preserves its authenticity while also reflecting the specificity of the Qatari dialect as part of the national cultural heritage, Al Sorour pointed out.
He further noted that the station has continued to cover national events, conferences, and social activities, remaining present at major occasions, foremost among them National Day celebrations.
The Radio, he said, is moving full steam ahead according to a strategic vision aimed at enhancing its programming output across all platforms, strengthening its regional and international presence, and supporting program exchange, thereby fostering Arab and international media cooperation.
These efforts were recently crowned with Radio Qatar ranking first among Arab radio stations, reflecting its professional standing and media leadership, Al Sorour recalled.
He pointed to continued investment in digital platforms and social media, and the attraction of national talent capable of continuing the path of development and renewal, in line with the rapidly evolving media landscape.
