About Radio SAWA


Launched in 2002, Radio Sawa is an Arabic-language radio network that broadcasts news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with more than 370 newscasts per week. Newscasts range in length from 30-minute in-depth reports (including interviews and analysis) to 90-second headline reports. Radio Sawa’s flexible format permits the station to respond quickly to developing news events and expand both newscasts and live coverage as required. News and current affairs programs make up approximately a third of Radio Sawa’s programming schedule. In addition to news, Radio Sawa provides analysis of current events, sports and features on a wide variety of political and social issues combined with an upbeat mix of the best Western and Arabic popular music.


Radio Sawa maintains an active all-news website (www.radiosawa.com) which provides both up to the minute news and information as well as live streaming audio. In addition to the latest headlines, RadioSawa.com also has reports on the latest news in technology, sports, business and the arts.


Radio Sawa is operated by the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN). MBN is financed through a grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent federal agency funded by the U.S. Congress. The BBG oversees MBN and acts as a firewall to protect the professional independence and integrity of the broadcasters.


 


Michael P. Meehan


Co-Chair of the BBG Communications and Outreach Committee

Chair of the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee

Chair of the Board of Radio Free Asia

Chair of the Board of Middle East Broadcasting Networks



Michael P. Meehan currently serves as Co-Founder and CEO of Venn² Communications. He also served as the first President of BGR Public Relations, LLC.

For over two decades, Michael P. Meehan served in senior roles for U.S. Senators John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, two presidential campaigns, two U.S. House offices and congressional campaigns in 25 states. Meehan earned a B.A. in political science from Bates College.

Michael P. Meehan serves as Co-Chair of the BBG Communications and Outreach Committee and Chair of the Board of Radio Free Asia.

Michael P. Meehan was appointed to the board on July 2, 2010 to a term expiring on August 13, 2010. By law, any member whose term has expired may serve until a successor has been appointed and qualified.

Victor H. Ashe


BBG Governance Committee

BBG Strategy and Budget Committee


Vice Chair of the Board of Radio Free Asia


Chair of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks' Audit Committee

 

Ambassador Ashe holds the distinction of being the longest serving mayor of Knoxville.
 

During his time in office, from 1988 to 2003, he was the President to the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 1994 to 1995 and received their Distinguished Service Award for Leadership in 2003.

Ashe served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from June 2004 to October 2009.


In 2004, he was a Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK Institute of Politics. From 1968 until 1974, Ashe served as a Tennessee State Representative.


In 1975, he was elected as State Senator and held office until 1984. Ashe served in 1967 as a staff assistant to US Sen. Howard Baker.


He was executive director of the Americans Outdoors Commission, 1985-1987 chaired by Sen. Lamar Alexander (then Governor).


Five U.S. Presidents, beginning with President Ronald Reagan, have named Ashe to different federal positions. He will be the first former Ambassador and local elected official to serve on the BBG.


Ashe currently sits on the Board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the American Rivers Association, and is a former member of the AmeriCorps Board of Directors.


Ambassador Ashe earned a B.A. in History from Yale University in 1967 and graduated from the College of Law at the University of Tennessee in 1974.

Ashe is a member of the Governance Committee and the Strategy and Budget Committee and serves as Corporate Board Vice Chair of Radio Free Asia.

Ashe was appointed to the board on July 2, 2010 to a term expiring on August 13, 2010. By law, any member whose term has expired may serve until a successor has been appointed and qualified.

He is married to the former Joan Plumlee and they have two children—J. Victor and Martha.


Ashe resides at 3709 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919 and welcomes comments and views on BBG issues. He can be reached by phone at 865 523-6573 or email at vhashe@aol.com.

John Forbes Kerry

 

On February 1, 2013, John Forbes Kerry became the 68th Secretary of State of the United States.

 
Previously, Mr. Kerry served 28 years in the United States Senate, with the last four as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
 
As a senator Mr. Kerry was a leader on key foreign policy and national security issues facing the United States, including nuclear nonproliferation and global climate change. Prior to chairing the committee, Mr. Kerry chaired the Asia and Middle East subcommittees where he authored and passed major legislation on international drug trafficking, international money laundering, humanitarian aid, and climate change, and he helped negotiate the agreement establishing the United Nations tribunal to prosecute war crimes in Cambodia.
 
Mr. Kerry is represented on the Board by Tara D. Sonenshine, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

Susan McCue


Co-Chair of the BBG Communications and Outreach Committee

Vice Chair of the Board of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Member of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks' Audit Committee 


Susan McCue is President of Message Global, a strategic advocacy firm she founded in 2008 for social action campaigns.

 


She was the founding President and CEO of The ONE Campaign to combat extreme global poverty and was Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from 1999 to 2006.


Before that she held numerous communications positions in government and campaigns. She is currently Vice Chair of Humanity United and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.


McCue is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., with degrees in economics and journalism.


McCue serves as Co-Chair of the BBG Communications and Outreach Committee and Vice Chair of the Board of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.


McCue was appointed to the board on July 2, 2010 to a term expiring on August 13, 2011. By law, any member whose term has expired may serve until a successor has been appointed and qualified.

MBN Corporate officers


Brian Conniff, President


Kelley Sullivan, Treasurer


Anne Noble, Secretary

 

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