Scholars of interwar and World War II-era international radio broadcasting often focus on geopolitics and news broadcasts. However, most radio stations devoted the bulk of broadcasting time to entertainment programming (live and recorded music, radio dramas, poetry) and educational programs (talks, English lessons, children’s programs). Scholarly interest in the BBC’s early Arabic service has similarly focused on its news broadcasts, with less attention to entertainment / educational programming. Drawing on multi-sited archival research and material culture evidence, this paper surveys and analyzes examples of dramatic, literary, and educational programming on the BBC’s Arabic service in the late 1930s and 1940s, arguing that these programs served both to draw audiences and also to help shape developments in mid-century Arabic dramatic and literary cultures. In 1941, the BBC’s Arabic service launched its first Arabic poetry competition, offering cash prizes and on-air readings to the winners. The competition was open to authors of a subset of Arab states, who first submitted their poems to their national broadcasting station – BBC affiliates. By 1944, the competition was opened to submissions from Africa and the Americas. These poetry competitions increased listener interest, and fostered relationships between the BBC and stations in Cairo, New York, and elsewhere. It also provided near-free content for the service, since it reserved the right to broadcast and/or publish all submitted poems.) In May 1942, the BBC’s Arabic service established its first Arabic play competition, modeled on the service’s poetry competition. While it ran more intermittently, it similarly provided the service with an influx of new material for broadcasting, and the listener interest that came with them. The BBC Arabic service’s biggest success in attracting an audience came from its English lessons broadcasts. Starting in April 1939, it broadcast a series of talks delivered in “basic English”. They were aimed at listeners who had some knowledge of English, and used simple vocabulary and regular-form verbs. Listeners responded enthusiastically, with requests for rebroadcasts and new lessons from all parts of the Arabic-speaking world. The BBC expanded the broadcasts, offering more English lessons on the Arabic service and introducing English lessons on its other services, until they became a staple of its overseas broadcasts. Paying careful attention to these and similar entertainment and educational anchors of the BBC’s Arabic service programming helps illuminate their important role in attracting audiences and their impact.