Radio Broadcasting In Pakistan

By Saveed Raza

Faraday

In 1831, Michael Faraday began a series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction. The relation was mathematically modeled by Faraday's law, which subsequently became one of the four Maxwell equations. Faraday proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around the conductor, but did not complete his work involving that proposal.

Beginnings of radio:

There are varying disputed claims about who invented radio, which in the beginning was called "wireless telegraphy". The key invention for the beginning of "wireless transmission of data using the entire frequency spectrum", known as the spark-gap transmitter, has been attributed to various men. Marconi equipped ships with life saving wireless communications and established the first transatlantic radio service. Tesla developed means to reliably produce radio frequency electrical currents, publicly demonstrated the principles of radio, and transmitted long distant signals.n 1896, Guglielmo Marconi was awarded a patent for radio with British Patent 12039, Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals and in Apparatus There-for.

Radio Pakistan:

Is the official international broadcasting station of Pakistan.Radio Pakistan was able to start its external services on regular basis on 1949. As Pakistan is strategically located and is a close neighbor of China, India, Middle Eastern countries and Central Asia, it is necessary to use Radio Pakistan and its external services as an instrument to project

the country's policies in true perspective so that a message of peace and friendship is disseminated to the world specially to its neighbors.The programmes of External Services are so designed as to project Pakistan's view point on domestic and foreign policy issues. Another special aim of these services is to disseminate knowledge about the art, culture, history, values and way of life of its people among foreign listeners in order to generate feelings of friendship, goodwill and mutual understanding which help create an environment of peace and tranquility and make co-existence possible in the region. They broadcast in 16 languages: English, Chinese, Dari, Pushto, Hazaragi, Persian, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Sinhala, Nepali, Turki, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and Bangla.Radio Pakistan continues to broadcast programmes which promote relations between Pakistan and organizations of which Pakistan is the member.

The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation:

was formed on 14th August 1947 when Pakistan became independent. It was a direct descendant of the Indian Broadcasting Company which later became All India Radio. At independence Pakistan possessed three radio stations at Dhaka, Lahore and Peshawar. A major programme of expansion saw new stations opened at Karachi and Rawalpindi in 1948, and a new broadcasting house at Karachi in 1950. This was followed by further stations at Hyderabad (1951), Quetta (1956), a second station at Rawalpindi (1960) and a receiving centre at Peshawar (1960).In 1970, training facilities were opened in Islamabad and a station opened at Multan. A major step was the establishment of the Radio Pakistan World Service on 21st April 1973 for overseas Pakistanis followed by new stations at Khairpur (1974) and Bahawalpur (1975).The main broadcasting unit of PBC at Islamabad moved to the new National Broadcasting House in 1977 and the service reached the remotest parts of Pakistan with stations

at Gilgit (1977) and Skardu (1977) in the far north and Turbat (1981) in the far southwest. From 1981 to 1982 stations and transmitters were also established at Dera Ismail Khan, Khuzdar and Faisalabad.Radio Pakistan opened a new broadcasting house in Khairpur on 7th May 1986, followed by relay stations in 1989 at Sibi and Abbottabad. The remoter parts of the country began to receive coverage with new stations opened in the 1990s at Chitral, Loralai and Zhob. In 1997, the Federal Minister of Information inaugurated the computerisation of the PBC news processing system and availability of the news bulletins on the Internet in text and audio form [1].In October 1998, Radio Pakistan started FM transmission and over the period 2002-2005, new FM stations were opened at Islamabad, Gwadar, Mianwali, Sargodha, Kohat, Bannu and Mithi.

PBC Services

The PBC provides several services including:• Home Service (domestic network) • World Service (for overseas Pakistanis) • External Service • PBC News o News & Current Affairs Channel • Sautul Qur'an (religious broadcasting) • FM – 101 (service in major towns and cities) • National Sound Archives

PBC News

The PBC News service broadcasts 149 news bulletins in 31 languages daily, covering world, national and regional news as well as sports, business and weather reports.IT'S HARD TO SAY EXACTLY WHEN radio started to lose the love and the Power and the magic celebrated in that Noor Jahan anthem.

Worse, there's increasing

Concern that radio is entering a long-term decline, the result of newCompetition and technologies and changing consumer tastes.Under adults -- the key targets of radio advertising -- have clearly been losing their ardor for the medium. By one key measure, the number of listeners ages 18 to 34 declined by about 50% in 1990.

New Competition:

Radio Vs TV was the first reason caused decline the radio broadcasting and listeners in Pakistan

Radio Medium itself is the reason for this decline. We all know that radio only communicates through Audio. One can listen to it understand and then react on the other hand TV is more striking, attractive, easier to understand and react.

In Pakistan according to one estimate rural areas had the maximum number of listeners 10 years back. The constant changing competition which radio is facing from last few decade is largest cause of decline in number of listeners and Radio Broadcasting itself. Today we prefer watching tv news channel for news and our mobile phones or personal computers to listen to our favorite songs. Arrival of internet, Mobile Phone with Mass Storage Capacity, Cable TV, Local Cable Tv channels, Video games and now ipods have massively caused decline in this industry. Because radio is a limited medium therefore it is not as effective as other mediums are.

Changing Technology

Its almost same as new competition but slightly restricted to what new things are coming up with. More or less every

person is getting in the fast lane of life where he or she has less time to receive information and react. This difference could be experience while moving from Faisalabad’s life to Karachi or from Karachi to New York. The difference is clear and this is just because of technology we are experiencing while staying in different areas of the world. Radio on a whole in Pakistan is quickly going down day by day due to this rapid technology and life lane changings. I my self used P1 computer 6 years back but now there is not even single software in the market which could be installed on that same P1 system which used. We have 100 TV channel on a single click we have 1000s of songs on single click and can talk to whoever and whenever we want to. 3310 is now a joke but believe you me few years back I was a status symbol. I am not telling you that 3310 is the cause of decline of radio industry but just to realize you how technology changes. Radio technology started from audio and still Its all about Audio and of course it will remain as a audio medium but the technology is changing every moment and there is nothing Radio could do about it.

Changing Tastes:

Although Indian songs continue to enjoy high popularity in Pakistan, their exclusive hold on listenership has declined over the past 25 years. These findings have emerged from a recent survey by Gallup Pakistan on Media Habits. The survey revealed that almost one-third (37%) of the Pakistani population prefers to buy cassettes of Indian songs over any other, while less than one-fourth (19%) prefer only Pakistani songs. However, 38% like to listen to both Pakistani and Indian music. The same survey was conducted by Gallup Pakistan a number of times since 1980, revealing that exclusive preference for Indian music was as high as 54% in 1980, which declined to 50% in 2000 before dropping significantly to 37% in 2006, at present.Exclusive listenership of Pakistani music nearly doubled from 27% to 42% during the years 1980 – 2000. However, it

dropped significantly to 19% in 2006, showing an increasing trend for listenership of both Pakistani and Indian music. When asked, analysts at Gallup Pakistan explained this pattern by saying that greater access to Indian music through cable/satellite TV has blurred the distinction between Indian and Pakistani music. Hence creating the trend of listening to both, rather than exclusively preferring either Pakistani or Indian songs.This survey was a single example about how our taste changes. PBC could never allow Radio Pakistan to broadcast Indian or some foreign music because of certain obvious policies and this was also a big cause of downfall. As Ralf Weldo Emerson Said:

We change, whether we like it or not”If you don't create change, change will create you”

This is what all happened with Radio Industry!

Current Conditions:

But now there are more than 116 Private Local Entertainment Radio Stations Regulated by PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) working actively in Pakistan. Which have helped a lot in the reincarnation of radio broadcasting. New technology like RDS and Frequency Modulation has enabled radio industry to meet new technology changes. Now it’s a new industry where radio stations are earning more than 10 Million a month 2 times more than some of the satellite Tv channels.