Psychological radio operations in the Yemen war

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog post, reflecting only my views. 

A change for this blog! Rather than radio stations long gone, a look at some that are currently active in the war in Yemen.

Political and media background

Rebels of the Houthi movement seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014. The following year Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, with US backing, began a military intervention in Yemen to fight the rebels and support President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his government. The intervention continues to this day.

At the time the foreign military intervention began in March 2015, President Hadi (who had already fled from Sanaa for the southern port city of Aden) went into exile in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi authorities provided him with satellite television channels to back his cause among audiences back in Yemen and in the region. Satellite TV viewing is very common across the Arab world, and any political faction worth its salt operates at least one such channel.

In contrast, radio is now generally much less important in the region. However, radio may be playing a significant role in the information war that accompanies the Yemeni conflict as it is less vulnerable than television or online media to the damage caused during the fighting to the power, mobile phone and internet infrastructures.

With that in mind, it is notable that alongside various Saudi-backed TV channels, three radio stations supported by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels are beaming into Yemen from abroad.

A regular programme on Radio Al-Azm (see below) is
The Spider's Web, about Saudi Arabia's enemy in the war
Image taken from Radio Al-Azm's Twitter account

In the order in which they came on the air, the three anti-Houthi radio stations are:

Radio Sanaa

This is the station of the exiled government under President Hadi, who continues to spend most of his time in Saudi Arabia. Along with Hadi’s "Yemen TV", which uses the same name and branding as that of the main channel of the state television in the Yemeni capital, Radio Sanaa presents itself as the country’s legitimate state broadcaster. 

Radio Sanaa has been on the air since November 2015, presumably from Saudi Arabia. It is on the air around the clock on shortwave (11860 kHz).

Radio Al-Azm ("Determination")

Radio Al-Azm is run by the state-owned Saudi Broadcasting Authority (known until July 2018 as the Saudi Broadcasting Corporation). 

The station has more than one target audience. It's a morale boosting service for Saudi military personnel fighting the Houthi rebels. But Radio Al-Azm will be aware that it also has significant potential civilian audiences on both sides of the Saudi-Yemen border. It's based in the southern Saudi city of Jizan and has been been on the air since September 2017.

Radio Al-Azm is on the air 24/7 via a number of AM (mediumwave) and FM transmitters in the Saudi regions of Jizan and Najran, bordering Yemen, and on a shortwave frequency, 11745 kHz (note how close that is to Radio Sanaa's shortwave channel of 11860 kHz).

Radio Al-Azm advertises its programmes on its Twitter account.

Headphones and rifles on Radio Al-Azam's logo

Voice of the Republic (Sawt al-Jomhouria)

Voice of the Republic is an information operation of one of the factions within Yemen that is fighting the Houthis. It has a substantial presence on the airwaves, being available via local FM transmitters within Yemen, on satellite and on a powerful AM transmitter in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Affiliation: Voice of the Republic is run by the "National Resistance Forces" (NRF), also known as the "Guards of the Republic", commanded by Brigadier-General Tariq Muhammad Abdullah Saleh. The NRF is based at Mocha (Al-Mukha) on Yemen’s west coast. It is part of the Saudi-backed pro-government coalition.

Launch date: Voice of the Republic reportedly began broadcasting in mid-May 2018. 

The website Sahafah24 reported on 14 May that Brigadier-General Saleh and his "Guards of the Republic" had launched the station in Mocha on 93.1 FM.

Expansion of coverage: Less than a month later (5 June), the website News Yemen reported that transmissions had been expanded from Mocha and now covered Hodeidah (Hudaydah), further north on the coast, on 104.1 FM. 

Then on 28 June, the website Al-Wefaq News reported that the station was also being transmitted on 1170 AM. 

The UAE connection: The signal on 1170 AM is coming from a very powerful (800 kW) transmitter at Al-Dhabbaya in the UAE. Note that the UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Before it switched to relaying Voice of the Republic, the transmitter on 1170 AM had carried the UAE government station Radio Abu Dhabi.

Although Voice of the Republic is on the air on FM and satellite around the clock, it is only relayed on the AM transmitter in the UAE during the hours of darkness, when the signal will reach the target area in Yemen by skywave propagation. 

Also on satellite: In addition to its terrestrial transmissions on AM and FM, Voice of the Republic is also available on satellite. It can be heard on the Eutelsat 7 West A satellite at 7.3 west. The transponder frequency is 12360 MHz, horizontal polarisation. This particular transponder is leased to the UAE company du.

Transmissions from Eutelsat 7 West A are often incorrectly referred to in the Middle East as coming from Nilesat, because it is in almost the same orbital location as Nilesat 201 at 7.0 west, and many satellite users say they have a "Nilesat dish" pointing at that position. 

Recording: You can hear the announcer mention the station's name, Sawt al-Jomhouria, and "Nilesat" in this recording.

Further reading

For more about Radio Sanaa and Radio Al-Azm, see an article by veteran radio enthusiast and Arabist Hans Johnson published in Radio World in June 2018.

© 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and any original source.