BBC Empire Service - Arabic

Broadcasts to the World from the UK seem a fairly logical idea, but without the early persistence of John Reith, they may never have occurred quite to promptly. He steered and launched what was originally the BBC Empire Service in 1932, immediately realising its significance: "men and women, so cut off by the snow, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them".

Its significance became clear to all as War approached. The Empire Service, later called the Overseas Service and now the World Service was originally funded by the BBC, later by the Foreign Office and now, again by the BBC itself.

As can be heard here, its first foreign language broadcast was in Arabic in January 1938, with Spanish and Portugese added a short time after.