Radio broadcasting in Egypt began in the 20th century, in 1924 as privately owned and operatedcommunity stations. Later, in 1934 private ownership and operation were abolished and radio broadcasting was nationalized ever since. By the early 1990s, Egypt had only 4 FM stations in Greater Cairo, but the number increased to 6 in Greater Cairo by the end of the decade. The increase in the number was merely a rebroadcast of the already AMradio stations. In 2000, AM stations started a phase of simulcasting to FM band, as of 2013, only one or two stations broadcast on AM without FM simulcasts. All the local radio stations have always been publicly owned, however, state-controlled which make them in practice, stated owned, with the exception of the apolitical private radio station at El Gouna resort, named El Gouna Radio. All broadcast media are somehow state controlled, even if partly or fully private. As of 2002, there were only 8 radio stations broadcast on FM to Greater Cairo, none of them was specialized in popular songs. On March 23, 2002, VOA had changed its shortwave Arabic service to an appealing station for the youth, named Radio Sawa, started broadcasting on a more easily receivable MW signal from Cyprus. For the first time, the state allowed Good News to start a joint venture with the state-controlled ERTU, which started a test broadcasting for two popular song stations to Greater Cairo, as of June 2002. The two were Nogoum FM and Nile FM.
Local stations
All local radio stations in Egypt are also simulcasted on the series of the satellites, Nilesat at 7 degrees west, except El Gouna Radio. Local stations are typically broadcast on FM. Very few radio stations use the Radio Data System to broadcast the station name, but receiving the RDS is very rare in FM receivers in Egypt. Very few available mobile phones in Egypt which have an FM receiver, receive the RDS information. 90.9 MHz is the only station to broadcast the current song or show title, but when the title is long, it is partly displayed. All of the radio stations are state-controlled, unless otherwise noted.
Greater Cairo
has the most number of FM stations in Egypt. The broadcasting antenna of FM and terrestrial TV is in Mokattam hills, as they are the most elevated location within Greater Cairo, to make the transmission reaches the widest area possible, however, the signals are weakly received farther than 40 kilometers, which makes transmission weak to the most eastern part of New Cairo, the eastern half of Shorouk City, two-thirds of western 6 October City, all of Madinaty, Badr and New Heliopolis. A few of the following stations are broadcast on other frequencies in other regions in Egypt. All stations which broadcast popular songs are mainly Egyptian songs with very few Levantine hits or other north African.
87.8 MHz Mix
88.2 MHz Radio Hits – popular songs with occasional foreign songs.
88.7 MHz Radio Masr - popular songs and news briefs.
89.5 MHz Middle East Radio – spoken content and songs.
90.9 MHz El Radio FM 90 9 – popular songs. '
91.5 MHz Cultural Program – spoken content, rarely classical music, some affiliate foreign stations programs.
104.2 MHz Nile FM – Full-time English-speaking. Syndicated American and British shows as well as local talk shows in English.
105.3 MHz Nagham FM – popular songs
105.8 MHz Specialty Songs – mainly old Egyptian songs.
106.3 MHz Voice of the Arabs – spoken content.
107.4 MHz Egyptian Radio - General Program – spoken content
108 MHz Youth and Sports Radio aka as Goal FM – sports news, live matches and songs.
North coast
Foreign radio stations can be received in summer, mainly: Cypriot, Greek, Italian and Israeli radio stations, but reception is unreliable and fades quickly.
Since 2009, the government sometimes occasionally broadcasts some radio stations which are only broadcast to Greater Cairo, on the same frequencies used in Greater Cairo. On occasions such as the official vacations in Egypt. The broadcasts can be received by nearby local touristic villages to Marina and very weakly in Alexandria, likewise the radio stations broadcast to Alexandria are received very weakly in and around Marina.
88.7 MHz Radio Masr'
90.9 MHz El Radio FM 90 9 '
100.6 MHz Nogoum FM
104.2 MHz Nile FM
105.3 MHz Nagham FM
Red Sea
El Gouna
100 MHz El Gouna Radio
Soma Bay
Robinson FM - at Robinson hotel
Sharm El Sheikh
Most if not all of them are already broadcast in Greater Cairo, except South Sinai.
88 MHz ? – spoken content.
89.4 MHz General
91.1 MHz Musical
92.5 MHz ? – spoken content.
94.3 MHz ?
95.7 MHz ? – spoken content.
97.6 MHz ?
99 MHz South Sinai – spoken content.
Dahab
92 MHz Koran
98.5 MHz ? – spoken content.
103.7 MHz ? – spoken content.
107.3 MHz European Program
Central Egypt
89.8 MHz koran station covered Fayoum and Bani Sweif
101.4 MHz northern upper station covered Bani Sweif and Fayoum
94.2 MHz northern upper station covered Minya
Internet stations
After the slow adoption of broadband internet, in the mid-2000s, a number of internet stations streamed on the internet, and a few of them stream on a regular basis. ;Examples:
As of the 1952 coup d'état, no foreign station is allowed to broadcast on Egyptian-controlled land with a 2018 exception in Alexandria, therefore international broadcasters broadcast from lands close to Egypt, mostly close to the north of Egypt, from Cyprus. Many state controlled radio stations used to broadcast primarily on the medium wave using amplitude modulation broadcasting, but after the adoption of FM broadcasting in Egypt, most of them now are simulcasted on the medium wave and the FM band since the early 2000s. The state controlled radios aren't listed below. AM radio broadcasting in Egypt had always been mono and other developments were never introduced. The long wave band had never been used.
Medium wave
639 kHz BBC Arabic and BBC World Service – in Literary Arabic. '
1233 kHz Monte Carlo International – in Literary Arabic. '
Historical
990 kHz Radio Sawa – news, informational content and popular songs; most spoken content in Literary Arabic.
Short wave
In the 1960s, at time of Nasser rule, short wave broadcasting was important for the state. It used to broadcast stations to the Middle East which were of propagandist importance to the Egyptian regime and for propagating for Arab nationalism.