Syrian opposition radio airs own 'Car Talk'
In Istanbul, Syrian dissident radio station Radio Al-Kul has a hit with its show “My Car Has Stopped.”
ISTANBUL — For Radio Al-Kul, a dissident radio station run by Syrian exiles in Istanbul, hands-on advice to listeners on how to fix a broken car is part of the struggle against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The show “My Car Has Stopped” features in Radio al-Kul’s mix of shows, news and music that is beamed to Syria from Istanbul every day.
In Syria, a country devastated by civil war, daily life is hard for most, and car-owning listeners are more interested in getting their vehicles going again than in the latest SUV model on world markets, said Obai Sukar, 31, co-founder and CEO of Radio Al-Kul, “Radio for All” in Arabic.
Hence the car-repair advice: “It’s about car parts, how the engine works,” Sukar said. “When we do a cooking show, we can’t tell people how to do a cordon bleu.”
