Historical Lahore radio station closed down

[Naveed Yaseen]

THE medium wave Lahore Radio Station, which was considered as the livewire of the 1965 and 1971 wars has been silenced for good on the directions of Director General Murtaza Solangi sending home all those affiliated with the operations.

Instead of upgrading the equipment and replacing the old transmitter of the Lahore station, one of the major medium wave stations of Radio Pakistan has been shut down. This medium wave station on 630 kHz (100 KW) had been working since 1937. It played a key role in the wars of 1965 and 1971 by broadcasting patriotic national songs.

Interestingly, besides closing the chapter of Lahore Station, Solangi also sealed another major news and current affairs channel of Lahore Station that was being listened on 1332 kHz [100 KW] for the last four years. It is pertinent to mention that 1332 kHz was established by investing almost Rs 500 million.

An official of Radio Pakistan disclosed that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was keeping a mum over the solo initiative.

The source further says the federal ministry is authorized to establish or close any Radio Pakistan station, but it has remained silent over this solo step for various reasons.

The DG of Radio Pakistan is of the view that the closed station was too expensive to run. Moreover, the old infrastructure was not fulfilling the modern requirements of broadcasting. For meeting modern needs, on the further directions of the DG, a new FM channel on 93 MHz has been established, but it only covers a radius of 30-40 km.

The convincing ability of this argument however is weakened by the global trend even in the developed countries where they had to legislate the provision of different medium wave frequencies due to high demand of these medium wave channels.

Newly-appointed Lahore Station Director (SD) Sardar Ali said the station had been bearing a huge loss monthly including Rs 1 million for electricity bills besides other expenditure. He said the new FM service was receiving enormous response from the public. “The government has just changed the medium. All the programmes of the station are broadcast on FM now,” the SD commented.

Another senior official says that citing the old transmitter as an excuse is not a suitable justification for closing the entire station. He said India has established more than 100 new medium wave radio stations along the border for propaganda purposes. “There is a need to install new broadcasting channels along with upgrading old ones to meet present day requirements; but the government’s attitude is beyond reason.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=195011