Hayat FM promises fresh music and more interactivity

Sunday, Jun 03, 2012

Dubai: Whether it’s the latest Arabic music, news, traffic updates, weather bulletins — wherever you are in the country — you’re sure to have these and more interactivity at the newly launched 95.6 Hayat FM which went officially on air on Sunday morning.

Hayat FM (Arabic for ‘life’) is the latest addition to the GN Broadcasting (GNB) family and is being managed in cooperation with the UAQ Broadcasting Network.

“Things got hectic from 5 o’clock this morning when the whole team was here preparing. But thankfully there were no glitches — everything went smoothly, the news was on time, the BBC was loud and clear, and the presenters really took to the airwaves, welcoming the people to a brand new station with a brand new sound, brand new presentation, brand new style,” Fadi Mansour, Head of Hayat FM, told Gulf News.

“Today was mostly introduction of the show, of us, of the frequency, of the way we can communicate with people. In the next couple of days, some segments are gonna start to show. Basically, people are gonna start to see what kind of information we’re gonna give and what we’re aiming for throughout the show,” Lara Ebrahim, radio jockey of the breakfast show, said.

From a laid-back yet trendy start, Hayat FM will take listeners to a whole new level of programming. Arabic listeners aged between 18 to 39 will definitely hear something they’ll enjoy.

“Normally I don’t like to stab competition but they sound very monotonous. They’re lifeless, they do not have character. We’re very trendy, [we have] up-to-date music, and most of them tend to lean a lot on local music. The way we schedule our music is completely different that any other radio station,” Eyhab Saleh, Ebrahim’s co-host for the breakfast show, said, adding that they received positive responses from listeners while their four-hour show was on air.

To make the month more exciting for listeners, Hayat FM has launched a station-wide competition for the next four weeks for all its listeners, Arabic or not.

“We’ll be giving away 50 grams of gold at the end of every week. So what they have to do is SMS the word Hayat and the world Gold and their name to 5122, and at the end of the week, we’ll draw five winners and each winner will win 10 grams of gold and we’ll do that for four weeks,” Mansour said.

Besides music, Hayat FM promises to engage its listeners in more ways than one. Connect and get the latest traffic updates, weather bulletins, and news on the road by sending an SMS to 5122, or by calling them, using hands-free, through toll free number 800-HAYAT (42928).

For more information, please visit www.hayatfm.ae. Check their facebook page at Hayat FM UAE and follow them on twitter @HayatFMUAE.

By Janice Ponce de Leon