Riad Sharara was born in Machghara in 1940 and left the town at a young age to continue his education and build a life in Beirut. In a remembrance essay, Ghassan Hajjar reflected on the distance between the broadcaster and his birthplace, noting that early boarding-school education limited Sharara’s direct knowledge of the town.
Sharara began at Lebanese Radio in the early 1960s, moved to television news, and later specialised in entertainment and quiz programs. Shows such as “Zero or Twenty” and “Think and Win” helped establish a new model of Arab television and radio hosting based on knowledge, wit, and carefully prepared improvisation.
His work expanded beyond Lebanon through correspondence with the BBC and programs circulated across the Arab world. He was also associated with the Arabic adaptation of foreign formats, including “Al Hisn,” and worked in acting, poetry, and song, combining cultural depth with humour and quick intelligence.
For Machghara, Sharara represents one of the town’s sons whose name reached a broad Arab audience. Local initiatives, including the Qamar Machghara Festival committee, later sought to reconnect his memory with the town from which his family originated.
Sharara died on 24 September 1994, but his voice remained part of the auditory memory of an entire generation. His place in Machghara’s history rests not only on birth, but on the contribution of one of its sons to the modern language of Arab radio and television.