Monte Carlo Doualiya

**Monte Carlo Doualiya** is Franco-Arabic radio station owned by **France Médias Monde**. This station broadcasts featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety of music, plus hourly news bulletins with extended news coverage in the morning, midday, and early-evening peaks.

## History

**Radio Monte-Carlo Moyen Orient** (**RMC Moyent Orient**) began broadcasting in 1972. It became the leader of international radio stations in various countries in the **Middle East** and the **Persian Gulf**, such as **Lebanon**, **Jordan** and **Syria**. **SOMERA**, which manages **RMC Moyen Orient**, is financed by the **Ministry of Foreign Affairs** to the tune of 28 million francs a year. But French radio is increasingly competing with rivals BBC World Service and Voice of America, as well as with the arrival of new local radio stations. This situation, combined with a chronic deficit and a sharp decline in advertising revenues, necessitates a major restructuring of radio in the 90s.

At the end of 1996, **SOFIRAD** sold **RMC Moyen Orient** to Groupe Radio France Internationale (**RFI**) for 1 symbolic franc. Its audience is then estimated at 16 million people. On the radio, previously broadcast on medium waves, shortwave and satellite, began to broadcast in FM in some countries. In 1998, after moving to the **Maison de la Radio** in Paris, she became the first public radio station to go digital.

In 2005, the audience of **RMC Moyen Orient** eroded against the proliferation of local FM stations such as **Baghdad**, **Basra**, **Mosul**, **Djibouti** and **Kuwait**, as well as competition from pan-Arab and American radio and television stations. In November, a new team was appointed with **Philippe Beauvillard** as Chief Executive Officer and **Agnès Levallois** as Director of Information. Moreover, the grid, considered aging, is modernized and reinforced to rejuvenate the radio audience, composed of 50% over 35 years

At the end of 2006/beginning of 2007, the radio changed its name to **Monte Carlo Doualiya** (**MCD**).

On April 4, 2008, **Audiovisuel extérieur de la France** (**AEF**) was created under the impetus of the President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy elected the previous year. It is a matter of regrouping the activities of the French audiovisual industry under the same company, TV5 Monde and France 24, and RFI, of which **Monte Carlo Doualiya** is the subsidiary.

In January 2012, **Monte Carlo Doualiya** ceased to be a subsidiary of RFI when it became a full-fledged channel of  **Audiovisuel extérieur de la France** (**AEF**) alongside RFI and France 24. The legal merger of the group with its channels is effective on February 13, 2012.

In 2013, radio launched its own website and adopted a new program schedule. On 3 June, on the occasion of **Marseille-Provence 2013** and the opening of the **Museum of Civilization of Europe and the** **Mediterranean** (**MuCEM**), RFI and **MCD** launch a temporary bilingual radio in Marseille called **La Méditerranée ensemble**. It broadcasts **MCD** programs in Arabic from noon to 6 pm and French-language RFI programs the rest of the day.

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