Radio Sawa () is a Middle Eastern radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. The station is a service of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., which also operates Alhurra Television and is publicly funded by the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the U.S. Congress. The word "sawa" (, ) means "together" in many Arabic dialects. Preexisting attitudes and concurrent reality of opinions towards the United States led to the creation of Radio Sawa. It seeks to effectively communicate with the youthful population of Arabic-speakers in the Middle East. The station's goal is to promote pro-American attitudes to youth in the Arab world. Radio Sawa's first broadcast was on March 23, 2002. Its newscasts are broadcast live on air from its studios in Washington, DC and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Radio Sawa also has news bureaus and reporters throughout the Middle East. History Radio Sawa and its sister-network, Al Hurra TV, are part of a larger U.S. Public Diplomacy effort in the Middle East. Their stated mission is to "improve America's image in the Middle East and win the hearts and minds of the Arab people." Radio Sawa was first launched on 23 March 2002, initially in Jordan, West Bank, Kuwait, UAE (Abu Dhabi), Qatar and Bahrain and eventually in the rest of the Arab World (see below for full list). Radio Sawa replaced Voice of America's Arabic service, which had not been successful in attracting large audiences. The initiator of Radio Sawa is American media mogul Norman Pattiz. He found that more than 60% of the Arab population was under the age of 30, which is why he decided to develop programming that would target the younger generation. Pattiz believed that the best way to reach the young people was with music. This is why the majority of the radio's programming consists of American and Arab pop music. Radio Sawa is controlled by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the Federal agency responsible for all U.S. international civilian broadcasting. The BBG founded the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), a non-profit news and information organization, to run Radio Sawa and Al Hurra TV. Funding Radio Sawa is a United States Congress-funded public relations endeavor. Programming In contrast to the Voice of America radio broadcasts in the region which it replaced, Radio Sawa blends news with contemporary music, arts and lifestyle and other light programming. Radio Sawa's programming consists of