Ziad Fahmy

This article historically traces some of Egypt’s early private radio stations, which operated from the late-1920s until May 1934 when they were all forcefully shutdown by the Egyptian government. It Sheds more light on this important early period in Egyptian media history and highlights the role of many unacknowledged early radio pioneers. More importantly, the article analyzes the early forced transition to government-controlled radio, and the impact this sudden shift must have had on the owners, producers and listeners of these stations, as well as the broader implications on Egypt’s media landscape. This top-down forced transition from media-capitalism to what I call media-etatism, started with radio in the 1930s, and later on under Nasser, expanded to print and other media, exemplifying state control of media in Egypt for at least an entire generation.

Dr. Ziad Fahmy is a Professor of Modern Middle East History at Cornell University’s department of Near Eastern Studies. Professor Fahmy is the author of Street Sounds: Listening to Everyday Life in Modern Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2020), and Ordinary Egyptians: Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture (Stanford University Press, 2011). He is currently writing his third book, tentatively titled, Broadcasting Identity: Radio and the Making of Modern Egypt, 1925-1952. His articles have appeared in Comparative Studies in Society and History, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, History Compass, and in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His research has been ‎supported by the Fulbright-Hays Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Research Center in Egypt.