[2] In 1979, Qatar Radio installed a new short-wave transmitter which assisted in increasing the number of programs and transmission time.
[3] The station began broadcasting Urdu transmissions in 1980 on a medium wavelength for a duration of one hour.
[2] A program for French speakers was launched in 1985 on a medium wave, having a daily up-time of three hours.
[2] Qatar Radio (QR) was an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 2009, but was removed sometime later possibly because of inactivity.
The broadcaster first revealed on 12 May 2009 that they were interested in becoming active members of the Union, which would allow the nation to compete in the Contest.
Qatar first became involved in the Contest at the 2009 edition, where the broadcaster sent a delegation to the contest and broadcast a weekly radio show called '12pointsqatar' dedicated to Eurovision, which received favourable responses and has initiated the further involvement of Qatar in Eurovision.