Online radio caters to Anglo Israelis
TLV1 broadcasts from the heart of Tel Aviv, bringing a local perspective on of the most vibrant world metropolises
TLV1 is a new online radio station broadcasting from the heart of the city bringing a local perspective on one of the most vibrant world metropolises.
Video courtesy of jn1.tv
Israeli-American Yael Wissner-Levy, who has made a very good living writing speeches in English to leading politicians and businessmen, decided to dedicate herself to position Tel Aviv to its deserved place as one of the leading metropolitans in the world.
"This is why we started TLV1, simply because the city of Tel Aviv is such a fascinating, innovative city," says Wissner-Levy, TLV1's head of current affairs.
"So much content coming out of it that has nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, although we do talk about that as well here, there is so much coming out of here that is just missed around the world, and we deemed it interesting enough and almost sexy enough for people around the world to catch on and know more about it”.
Ynetnews's managing editor has a radio show on the new Anglo station.
After making his fortune in Silicon Valley, Avner Shelem came to retire in his native Israel and being he couldn’t really switch off his entrepreneurial spirit he came up with the idea to create TLV1.
"Fifty-five percent of the audience are Israelis and the rest of that are not, and this number is going down and the number of foreigners who are listening to us is going up," he says. "Over 104 different countries and over 11,000 cities around the world, so basically we cover every corner on this globe.
"The most surprising one was from the different Arab countries that are listening to us as well, and some of them send us a lot of warm feedback and were even willing to be interviewed. We interviewed people from Tahrir Square and we interviewed people from Jordan and Syria.
"They were willing to go on air and be interviewed by us, which of course warmed our hearts because it means we can have a dialogue and we can talk to them."
International audience growing rapidly
Heading the whole production side of the station is Anat Shraiber, who grew up in Ukraine until her family immigrated to Israel. Now she feels it is her duty to broadcast to the world how amazing her new homeland is.
"Originally I am from Kharkov in the Ukraine, so I grew up as a mix of a Russian and Israeli girl," she says. "The main difference is the culture, of course. Working with so many diverse and different cultures is very interesting. So you look at the same materials through different eyes and its very interesting."
It turns out that not only the local English speakers like to listen to TLV1. The international audience of the station grows rapidly with people as far away as Latin America and as close as our neighboring counties in the Middle East, all enjoying to listen to the station, making it the new unofficial voice of the State of Israel in the world.
