Her, Soc: Hyderabad Radio Station

[Nadeem Jamali <jamali@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

An article from last weekend's Dawn about the history of the Hyderabad
Radio station.

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http://www.dawn.com/weekly/images/images3.htm

                 'This is Radio Pakistan, Hyderabad'

                          By Faiz A. Siddiqi

A farmer goes to the field carrying an axe on his left shoulder and a
transistor radio on his right, his only source of entertainment and
information. Even now when dish antennas have become very common in
villages, the radio still enjoys importance.  When the political arena
becomes turbulent, people in both rural and urban areas have to rely
on the radio for news and information. They listen to BBC rather than
Radio Pakistan at that time.

Hyderabad in the 50s and 60s was the centre of social, cultural and
literary gatherings. The radio station here was established in 1955,
when the government put up one K.W. transmitter in Holmstead Hall, a
historical monument of the city. With six rooms it started functioning
with new anticipations and new aspirations. The pioneers of this radio
station were Hameed Naseem, Himayat Ali Shair, Sajjad Hyder, Ilyas
Ishiqee, Inayat Baloch, M.B. Ansari and A.M. Changla. M.B. Ansari and
Ibrahim Nafis were the first two announcers of Sindhi and Urdu,
respectively.

In 1962, the Hyderabad radio station relocated to a new building near
the Hyderabad Press Club, which was inaugurated by the then president,
Ayub Khan.

Realizing that a large number of people of upper Sindh were deprived
of listening to Radio Hyderabad radio, another 120 K.W. high power
transmitter was installed in 1971, due to which, an 88 mile range was
increased and the daytime transmission could be heard in the far-flung
areas of Sindh.

Various personalities of show business who became popular in their
fields were first introduced by Hyderabad Radio, such as renowned
filmstar Mohammad Ali, Mustafa Qureshi, his wife Rubina Qureshi, drama
artiste and PTV producer, Manzoor Qureshi, Qurban Jilani, Shafi
Mohammad Shah, Abdul Karim Baloch, Mehtab Akber Rashidi and others. In
the musical field it introduced noted classical singers Ustad Manzoor
Ali Khan, Ustad Umeed Ali Khan, Ustad Mohammad Juman, Allan Fakir,
Zarina Baloch, Abida Parveen, Suraiyya Hyderabadi, Humera Channa,
Mohammad Yusuf, Waheed Ali and Rajab Ali. In the library of the
station, voices of notable people such as Allama I.I. Kazi, Syed
Meeran Mohammad Shah, Dr. Nabi Bux Baloch, Mohsin Bhopali, Sheikh
Ayaz, Syed Mansoor Naqvi, Ilyas Ishiqi, Bilawal Perdesi, Makhdoom
Talibul Maula and others have been preserved.

Radio Hyderabad has contributed greatly towards elevating both Urdu
and Sindhi music simultaneously, after completing 43 years of its
existence. Its recorded music is being broadcast from all the three
stations, Karachi, Khairpur and Larkana. Radio Hyderabad introduced
folk music and folk singers of Thar, too, such as the queen of Thar,
Mai Bhagee.

As people of the rural areas are mostly an agro-based society, this
radio station is broadcasting programmes for farmers and growers
continuously, for the last 27 years. This has helped in creating an
awareness about the latest technology used in agriculture. But the
most popular programme among villagers is Sone Varnee Dhartee
(Gold-like Land) presented by Syed Saleh Muhammad Shah, a village
philosopher with simple folk wisdom trying to highlight the cultural
and traditional heritage of Sindh, including literature, fine arts,
poetry and folk music. He introduced the poetry of Shah Latif Bhitai,
his thought and feelings. This programme has been on air for the last
40 years with different names.

With its limited resources and lack of modern equipment, Hyderabad
Radio Station is valiantly continuing to play an active role to
promote cultural and social activities throughout Sindh.

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--
Nadeem Jamali                                           jamali@cs.uiuc.edu
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois-UC                   http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali