Cairo -

With the click of a button and without any conditions, you can listen to dozens of Egyptian and foreign radio stations via radio waves, but this was not the case in Egypt until the end of the fifties of the twentieth century.

A rare document dating back to 1946 - seen by Al-Jazeera Net correspondent with an Egyptian who collects old documents - shows that owning a radio device to listen to Egyptian radio at that time required obtaining a license that was renewed annually, and subject to strict conditions and controls.

On the 88th anniversary of the founding of the Egyptian Radio, which was launched on this day May 31, 1934, and is one of the oldest radio stations in the world, we review an unknown aspect of its history revealed to us by this small document.

Amateur Radio

Before reviewing the document and arriving at the reasons for its issuance and its content, we go back to the early years of the emergence of wireless radio stations in Egypt in the mid-twenties of the last century, that is, a few years before the launch of official radio.

At that time, Egypt witnessed the emergence of many private radio stations owned by individuals and merchants of Egyptians and foreigners residing in the country, in line with the emergence of radio in some developed countries, which necessitated the issuance of a law regulating the establishment of these stations.

On May 10, 1926, a royal decree was issued regarding the regulation of wireless communications, allowing radio amateurs to establish private radio stations in Cairo and Alexandria, and stipulating that the necessary licenses must be obtained for the use of wireless devices.

The law opened the door for those wishing to establish radio stations, and civil stations were established in different languages ​​and carried multiple names. In Cairo, we find Radio Fouad, Radio Princess Fawzia, Radio Prince Farouk, Radio Sayegh, Radio Egypt Royal, Radio Sabo, Radio Abulhoul and Radio Heliopolis, and in Alexandria, Radio Majestic and Radio Farid appeared. Radio Navera.

radio chaos

Many of the civil stations were characterized by the nature of chaos, as each station owner broadcast what he liked regardless of any controls or consideration of the social climate or the taste of the listeners, one of them was flirting with his beloved through the ether, and another promoted his goods with rumors of fires and explosions, and gangs sent encrypted messages through stations. The radio, according to what Dr. Helmy Shalaby mentioned in his book The History of Egyptian Radio.

And private radio stations continued to send them for years, until the government realized the importance of radio and its potential to influence society in terms of awareness, culture and public opinion, so it decided to establish an official government radio in cooperation with the English Marconi Communications Company and end the work of private radio stations.

After great objections from their owners, the private radio stations fell silent and their broadcasts stopped completely on May 29, 1934, so that the airwaves became the monopoly of the government alone.

At 5:30 in the evening of May 31, 1934, the voice of the Egyptian broadcaster Ahmed Salem sounded with the famous phrase “Here is Cairo,” marking the start of the work of the official Egyptian radio, followed by the recitation of the Noble Qur’an by the voice of the late Sheikh Muhammad Refaat, and then many paragraphs with the voice of stars of that time such as Umm Kulthum, who She sang, "Oh, the voice of our country, the voice of our jihad, louder and louder, the voice of our country."

Owning a radio device to listen to Egyptian radio required obtaining a license that was renewed annually (Al Jazeera)

license radio

“Turn off (Turn off) the Arabic ferry radio (the car is passing),” a phrase that the Egyptians used to say when passing government cars with devices to pick up radio signals, the task of which is to ensure that the owners of the receivers have a license to own and operate, otherwise they have to pay a fine.

The laws regulating the ownership of receivers in the fifties imposed on the owners and manufacturers of radio shops, to ensure that the buyer obtained a license to operate the device and to pay the prescribed fees, and imposed penalties between imprisonment and a fine in case of violation. What is the nature and conditions of this license?

The document seen by Al-Jazeera Net correspondent, issued by the Egyptian government's Telegraph and Telephone Authority on August 18, 1946, under the name "License for a Wireless Receiver", shows some conditions that the owner of the receiver must abide by.

The document - which bears the emblem of the Kingdom of Egypt and is engraved with the signature seal of the Inspector General of Telegraphs and Telephones Abdel Hamid Ghoneim - states that owning a wireless device to listen to public radios requires a prior permit to be renewed annually with a fee of 800 millimes (the Egyptian pound is equal to one thousand millimes), in addition to a stamp fee. It is 10 millimeters.

The license issued in the name of "Hazrat Abd al-Badi' Effendi Mahjoub Hashim" indicates that his permission to install and use a wireless device at the address fixed in the document is limited to receiving public radio broadcasts referred to in Article 3 of the Royal Decree issued on May 10, 1926 regarding the regulation of public radio broadcasts. wireless connectors.

A wireless receiving device license issued by the Telegraph and Telephone Authority in 1946 (Al-Jazeera)

In accordance with the terms of the license attached to the back of the document in both Arabic and English, the license holder is obligated to report any change in the address installed in it in the event of a change of residence, and the license is personal to use, and may not be waived, sold or disposed of, and in the event of its loss, it must be Extracting an official photo has a cost of 100 millimes.

The license warns against publishing and exploiting what is received via a wireless device, or using the device as a means of conducting telegraphic or telephone business, while adhering to legal restrictions not to disturb the population or impede the work of another device.

The license stipulates that the height and length of the antenna wire together, or any other external wire that is directly or indirectly connected to the device, shall not exceed 35 meters, and the electric power wire is excluded, with an emphasis that the wires shall not pass over any telegraph or telephone wire, or cut off a road or a public square. .

Egyptian law prohibited the assignment, sale or disposal of a radio license in any way (Al Jazeera)

Ongoing fee

The proceeds of the annual fees paid in return for a license to own and operate the receiver were directed to finance the broadcasting, to the extent that the first contract between the Egyptian government and Marconi company gave the latter 60% of the proceeds of these fees in return for the management.

Successive laws continued to require obtaining a license to own and use a wireless receiver to listen to radio, with the payment of a specified fee for its issuance.

But in 1960, Law No. 112 was issued, which merely notified the competent authorities of owning receivers powered by liquid (not dry) batteries, while still paying fees.

However, this law introduced new fees to be paid in favor of radio, as it was not limited to owners of receivers in homes or cars, but imposed a fee ranging from one to two millimes for each kilowatt of electricity consumed, and this fee is directed to the radio, as well as other fees on dry batteries.

In 1962, Law No. 48 was issued to amend the previous law, canceling the notification of owning the device or paying annual fees, while continuing the fees imposed on the consumption of electric current and on each owner of a car with a receiver.

Strict controls set by Egyptian law to own a wireless receiver to listen to radio stations (Al-Jazeera)