Originating fromMosul, Al-Bayan programs were credited with being "highly professional and slickly produced" and were sometimes compared toNPR and theBBC for tone and quality.[3][4][5] Al-Bayan's reporting on IS military operations had been referenced by theAssociated Press andThe Washington Post''.[6][7] The station stopped broadcasting after IS lost most of its bases in Iraq and Syria and after the radio station was destroyed by anair raid.[8]
Broadcasts by IS resumed later from Sirte, Libya under the station name "Radio Al-Tawheed".
The first broadcast of Al-Bayan Radio was launched in late 2014, which initially provided newscasts, then some other programs were added in April 2015.[9][10] The station offered a wide range of programming includingnasheed,Quran recitations, speeches,Fiqh, language instruction, and interview shows, interspersed with regular news bulletins and field reports from Al-Bayan correspondents in Iraq andSyria.[11] English-language news bulletins were delivered by an American-accented, male newsreader anddatelines are read in theIslamic calendar.[3]
The station in Mosul was reported to have gone off-air after an air strike on it in late February 2017 as part of theBattle of Mosul.[16] Iraqi forces discovered the station in March 2017 in an upscale western Mosul neighborhood they captured. IS had burnt it down before fleeing.[17]
In February 2015, IS captured a radio station called "Makmadas" inSirte, Libya. It was nominally run byAnsar Al-Sharia in Libya, which made it unclear whether that station was under IS management.[18] An IS-owned satellite television station and a powerful radio station on 94.3 FM, also based out of Sirte and operating under the brand name "Al-Tawheed," began broadcasting the previous October 2014. Radio Al-Tawheed (formerLibyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation transmitter) have 10 kilowatts output power and is received in Europe viasporadic E propagation.[19]
The station operated in 2015 and 2016 before being overrun by Libyan forces.[20] In spite of it, IS supporters promotes an Al-Bayan internet radio station to release its contents.[21] It is also being active in social media like Facebook or TikTok.[22]
Syria
Iraq
Libya