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Ram FM's new DJ makes a Bee-line for a younger audience By Daphna Berman Tags: Martin Bee Martin Bee's most recent stint on the English airwaves of a Middle Eastern country was in Dubai. Moving to Jerusalem, therefore, was something of a culture shock for the ex-pat Englishman. But exchanging the United Arab Emirates for Israel and the Palestinian territories suits him just fine, he says. "In Dubai, everything is new and glitzy," Bee said in an interview this week. "I like the fact that here, there's a lot of history and culture everywhere you go." Bee - who goes by the stage name Martin B - is the newest voice at Ram FM, the English-language Palestinian-Israeli radio station that broadcasts from Ramallah and West Jerusalem on 93.6 FM. The station, which was established last year by South African Jewish businessman Isaac (Issie) Kirsh, as a way to establish dialog between music lovers on both sides of the Green Line, celebrated its first birthday last week. Advertisement Bee, who started five weeks ago and now hosts the station's breakfast show, replaced John Berks, the veteran South African radio personality, who has since returned to South Africa for health reasons. Bee says he's trying to make the show more interactive, with quizzes and competitions. In one recent competition, listeners won a night out with him - complete with dinner in Tel Aviv. Bee, who is originally from Leicestershire, left the U.K. 10 years ago and has been working internationally since, first as a teacher in Cairo and then in Berlin, where he worked as a DJ. He returned to the Middle East three years ago and settled in Dubai, where he was a radio jockey for an English-language radio station in the city. Bee was living in the Canary Islands when he read about Ram FM. It felt like something he wanted to get involved in, he said, and so he applied for a job. "I'm fascinated by this region," he said, "and I also connected to the idea behind the station. Essentially, we're all people and the nice thing about radio and music is that the majority of people enjoy these things." Ram FM's Jerusalem studios are located in the Malcha technology park, home to a growing number of news agencies. Al Jazeera, in fact, is right down the hall. And the 33-year-old, who has since settled in the neighborhood adjacent to the studio, now walks to work every morning, often arriving before 5 AM. The station, despite its political aim, is mostly apolitical in content. Broadcasters, as well as the listener base, are Israeli, Palestinian, and international - but apart from the "Talk at 10" segment, they hardly deal with political issues at all. At "Talk at 10" this week, one segment was devoted to excavations on the Temple Mount, with Palestinian and Israeli interviewees. But the show following it is hosted by Arda Aghazarian, a Palestinian and Mike Brand, an Israeli - and the two chat about everything from weight loss to gardening, but never the conflict. "We're not a political radio station," said Maysoun Rafique, the station's manager. "We build bridges through music and entertainment, rather than through politics and contentious issues." They even changed their motto recently from "living in harmony" to "music has no boundaries", which station bosses say is a more subtle recognition of the station's goals. Music, for the most part, includes both adult contemporary, as well as more recent hits, which have been added since the station's launch to try and capture a younger audience. An survey commissioned by the station in August found that Ram FM's listener base is approximately 500,000 people - of whom some 350,000 are Israelis and 150,000 Palestinians. Rafique said the year has been full of challenges, including technical problems with rival pirate stations that jam the airwaves. Ram FM, by the way, is licensed by the Palestinian Authority. "Our biggest accomplishment," she said, "is that in the past year we've put Ram FM on the media map in Israel and Palestine." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah scare Lebanese group's influence has dramatically increased in the West Bank. Literary boycott Peres calls Muslim countries' shunning of Paris Book Fair 'most ridiculous.'

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