Even before finishing his marketing degree at the American University in Cairo, energetic, ambitious and carefree Khaled Matar was already taking Nile FM, Egypt’s only English-language radio station, by storm.
Matar’s radio career began on New Year’s Eve in 2007 at a small online radio music station called Rehab FM where he presented a program called “Funk’d.
Matar scored his big debut on Nile FM a few months later in April 2008 after winning a competition for the position of a presenter at the station.
Matar started out by hosting the “Pepsi Top 20 chart every Saturday along with Zack. When Zack went on vacation, Matar took over the show and has been its VJ ever since.
Luck continued to knock on Matar’s door. “A month after I started, Nile FM surprised me by asking me to do ‘Nile on Demand,’ which is a three-hour show everyday, do it completely on my own because the presenter had traveled abroad, he said.
Growing up in the United Kingdom, which arguably houses the greatest music scene in the world, Matar’s relationship with music began when he was only six years old. “Music is definitely a passion of mine, I used to listen to about 30 hours of music every week before working at Nile FM, he said.
An avid pop and R’n’B fan, working in the radio allowed Matar to widen his musical horizons. “I discovered that there are so many types of music and people like to listen to different types and it’s not fair to do a show and only include one type of music because you then alienate a whole group of listeners, he explained.
“So now I listen to everything, from salsa to samba to rock, he added.
In addition to “Pepsi Top 20 and “Nile on Demand, Matar started hosting a new early morning show: “Nile FM Fresh, which airs weekdays from 7 – 8 am, the first of its kind on the radio station.
“We found that 7 am is one of the most listened to time spots; the show has a hot mix of pop music and the whole point of Nile FM Fresh is that it plays brand new songs that haven’t been heard anywhere in Egypt probably and definitely not on Nile FM, said Matar.
Known for his imaginative methods, Matar maintains the freshness that made his show such a hit by holding competitions, such as the highly popular “Around the World in 60 Minutes that includes fun trivia questions.
What most audiences don’t know is that Matar is involved in his shows to the tiniest detail, from preparing the spoken content to choosing the music in addition to several other technical duties. Operating shows from A-Z was no walk in the park at the beginning.
“First I was doing the ‘Hot 7 at 7’ with Zack and one time he left me to do a show on my own. He was there in the studio but he left me to run the show and it went completely disastrous, kept doing the wrong things, pressing the wrong buttons and playing the wrong songs and then eventually Zack was like, ‘You’re doing a great job but just leave it for today’, Matar recalled.
Matar plans on branching into new fields in the future, but still wants to stay in radio. “Radio is definitely my passion but I also like to get into other things, he says.
A Jack of all tradesMatar also writes for Campus Magazine on non-music related topics. He’s a music producer, currently working on a project with a group of local rappers.
Matar also tried his hand at TV presenting, interviewing the stand-up comedians from the Comedy Rumble show for Melody Music TV channel.
Acting is not far off the horizon either; he was a film minor at AUC where he participated in a number of theatrical productions.
With all these early successes, Matar believes that the most important thing is to keep his feet on the ground. “As soon as you develop an ego, it totally ruins what you do.
