Iraqi youth radio show

The young people of Baghdad will soon be able to tune in to a new radio program run by and for young Iraqis focusing on their lives, hopes and leisure time but which will be produced in Germany.

Telephone FM will begin broadcasting 90-minute programs five afternoons a week in what its founder, Klaas Glenewinkel, claims is a first.

"In Iraq there are only two kinds of radio broadcasters, the mouthpieces of political or religious interests and foreign concerns like the BBC or Radio France," Mr Glenewinkel said.

He says young Iraqis complained that nothing "modern, open or liberated" was being made available to them when he visited Baghdad last year to see a friend.

Out of what he called "civic engagement", the 33-year-old communications professional drew up a project and found a sponsor: the German Foreign Ministry, which has provided some 83,000 euros in aid.

With violence and kidnapping a fact of daily life in Baghdad, the station has been set up in Berlin.

For security reasons, the two Iraqi men and one woman who are working as hosts on the program refuse to comment on the station's operations or allow themselves to be filmed or photographed.

Aged from 23 to 30, Ahmed, Nawar and Hiba had never before set foot outside an Arab country but they did have experience in radio broadcasting.

Now they will be working in a vast loft in the centre of Berlin transformed into a modern studio, where a hookah pipe stands in a corner.

Two Palestinians and a dozen Germans are there to assist them.

Telephone FM will air a mix of Arabic and mainstream Western music.

Its reports and interviews are, logically, conducted by telephone for the most part, and then mixed in Berlin.

The Arabic-language program is then charged onto the Internet and sent to one of Baghdad's rare private stations, Hot FM, which then airs the show.

The programming includes Local Heroes, a portrait of young Baghdadis who shine out by the example they have set either in business or community life.

The team is convinced their efforts will be a success.

Elvis-only station all right by fans.

A US satellite radio company is to create a special channel that will broadcast Elvis Presley's music 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The commercial-free Elvis Radio will debut on July 2 with a live broadcast from Memphis, Tennessee.

Thousands of Elvis fans are expected to gather in the city over the Fourth of July holiday weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the king's first single, That's All Right.

Sirius Satellite Radio believes it can avoid overly repetitive content by tapping the extensive Presley catalogue, including hit singles, B-sides, rarities, movie soundtracks and live concert recordings.

"I know he'd be beaming with pride at having his very own station," Elvis's widow, Priscilla Presley, said.

The channel is being launched in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company which handles the Presley estate.

"Elvis Presley was a true pioneer, a man of many firsts in our world," EPE president Jack Soden said.

"It seems natural for Elvis to be the first artist to have a satellite radio station exclusively devoted to his work."

Satellite radio is still in its infancy, with only 2 million subscribers in a country of 175 million broadcast listeners. source ABC

Radio broadcaster gunned down in southern Philippines

   Unidentified gunmen have fatally shot a Filipino radio broadcaster who police say earned the ire of local politicians with his hard-hitting commentary.Forty-nine-year-old ELY BINOYA -- a manager and commentator of community radio station Radyo Natin in southern Malongon town -- was riding a motorcycle when two men on another motorbike chased and gunned him down.General Santos police chief WILLIE DANGANE says BINOYA is known to have made enemies among politicians in Malongon town, about 1,000 kilometres southeast of Manila in Saranggani province.He says BINOYA had been beaten up last week, and had just been released from a hospital when he was killed.

DJs fired for airing Berg beheading screams

US radio station fined for Castro prank call

A Spanish-language radio station in Miami that crank called Cuban leader Fidel Castro has been fined $US4,000 by the United States broadcasting regulator.The station, El Zol 95.7, duped Mr Castro into believing that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was calling to seek help in tracking down a suitcase containing secret documents he said he lost during a trip to Argentina. Eventually a man posing as a Chavez aide asked Castro: "Do you agree with the shit on the island, murderer?" and added. "You fell for it ... the whole of Miami is listening to you, Fidel Castro." "What did I fall for, you shit?" the irate Cuban leader answered, adding further expletives, including references to the anatomy of the radio host's mother. Mr Castro hung up, ending the 25 minute conversation. The recording of the conversation June 17, 2003 was repeatedly aired. The station played a similar prank on Mr Chavez in January 2003, pretending Mr Castro was on the line. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday recommended that the station be fined $US4,000 for broadcasting a telephone conversation without notifying the other party. The station has 30 days to challenge or pay the fine. 26 April2004

Clear Channel dumps Howard Stern

Clear Channel Communications Inc says it has cut ties with shock jock Howard Stern after federal regulators proposed a $US495,000 fine for indecent comments carried on six of its radio stations.

John Hogan, president and chief executive of Clear Channel Radio, said the company was not willing to shoulder the "great liability" of broadcasting Mr Stern's popular radio show.

"The Congress and (regulators) are even beginning to look at revoking station licenses," Mr Hogan said in a statement.

"That's a risk we're just not willing to take."

Mr Stern issued a statement on his Web site calling the FCC's actions part of a "McCarthy-type 'witch hunt.'"

"It is pretty shocking that Governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the US," Mr Stern said in the statement.

Clear Channel said it decided to break off with Mr Stern after failing to get assurances from the show's syndicator, Viacom Inc's Infinity Broadcasting, that the program would comply with decency regulations.

As part of the FCC's order on Thursday, the commissioners also told the agency's staff to investigate Infinity's broadcast of the same April 9, 2003, show.

Infinity declined to comment on Clear Channel's decision or the pending FCC investigation