FM culture in Pakistan.... right going wrong...

Media is a very powerful tool. It has played a major role in history making in almost every era irrespective of any form of communication. A powerful media tool which is overlooked these days is radio. Many years back when t.v. was just a dream, people used radio as an effective mode for communication and learning. In the mid 20’s, with the advent of radio, man truly stepped further into the revolutionary world. I m not here to give u a history of radio but I m will point out the effect of radio in our present day and what impact it had in the past

Radio is a very popular mode of media in our country. It has various important universal reasons. It is easily accessible to common masses anywhere anytime without any hindrances. It can go places where television cannot go. I think this medium should be used not only to entertain a common man but also used to educate him in a most effective way. Coming back to radio’s history in our dear country, Pakistan radio Broadcastingcorporation became a reality the very day our country appeared on the map of the world.

Radio Pakistan‘s achievements are spread over a span of many decades. Its services include Home Service for Pakistani listeners, World Service for Overseas, External Service, A Quranic Channel, News and Current Affairs channel, FM Networks and National Sound Archives. As I have been told by my elders it was a treat tolisten radio back at that time. Dramas, poetry, humor, ghazals etc all was so simple yet effective and informative.

“Koi banaawat nahe”. Everything done was with pure intentions. Its aim was and still is to project pakistan’s national and international policies, culture, art, traditions, values of life, goodwill, friendship among its foreign listeners., to project a positive image of our country and it has done well. No one can deny the historical part PBC played through difficult times, wars, treasons imposed on us. In the late 1998, FM Transmissions were started in Pakistan on regular basis. And this marked an important turn of events in the role of radio in our society. By 2005, FM stations have taken over the old school of radio. Licenses were given as they were some pieces of cake. Result was, so many radio stations are working in our country.

What’s a purpose of FM radio stations? They are supposed to entertain the listeners as well educate them and highlight social and cultural issues. But as a keen listener of radio for over a decade now I have come to a conclusion that we are not serving justice with this medium. Everytime you tune a channel, its only music, music and music. And moreover foreign music is played without hesitation. No one is bothered to listen our culturally rich music. I am no different from others. Who is to blame? The policy makers or we as listeners? I say both. The radio giants in order to make big money, they allow foreign nonstop music 24 hours.

This way they are able to attract very huge listenership. But the dilemma of our society is that we have restricted fm radio just to the entertainment purposes. From morning around 8, the programs are on-aired which continue till 2 am late night. If we go through all the programs, we come across monotony and similarities. There is no specific purpose of these programs. Just chit chat here and there. Listeners are engaged in limited conversational topics which are nothing productive at all. Whenever u switch a channel or change, you can hear radio jockeys talking about imaginary world full of love and only love. There is no practicality to it. And listeners are well adapted to these topics.

There is nothing wrong in talking about feelings and love and emotions as these attributes constitute a human nature. But the point to ponder is that you cannot talk about it all the time. In third world countries, according to surveys conducted over many period of time, radio is accessible to almost 90% of population as compared to internet whose accessibility is well below 20%. Don’t you think that radio can be used to educate the poor masses of our country as well? well, coming back as I was talking, FM culture in Pakistan is evolving very fast. Government owned FM channels are somewhat providing entertainment as well as education and information.

But the privately owned FM stations have no interest whatsoever in the betterment of our youth. Just like private T.V. channels, these radio stations are continuously playing and promoting foreign content just to double their profit. Same shows, same format but with different voices. Programs are aired without any consultation and research. Due to this intense competition among stations, the listeners are totally ignored. Majority of our listeners don’t even realize the benefits of radio. They just want to hear “ chawaliyyan, jugtaain, muhabbat bharri shayiree” etc. where ever an infotainment program is on-aired it gets negative comments instantly. The policy regarding these radio shows need to be revised seriously. 

The programming content must be prioritized. Shows be designed in a way that listener from every walk of life is reached. The new breed of presenters, Radio Jockeys commonly called as RJs are also a contributing factor to this FM culture. Most of the RJs who are famous, get carried away with this stardom and as a result totally forget their social and ethical responsibility towards their listeners. Their fans look up to them as their role models but instead of setting a positive example, they cast a negative impact on their listeners indirectly.Whenever you visit fan club websites or official pages on social networking websites you will see posts loaded with shair-o shaayeree, love talk, jugut baazi etc. even these RJs ask such questions from their listeners just to gain more popularity. 

There is nothing wrong in the above mentioned content but there is a limit to everything and listeners should be made aware of their limits and restrictions. And lastly, we the listeners also have to some extent a moral responsibility to avoid the rush of such programs. We must and should encourage the responsible ones to promote positivity through radio. Its not that hard if the literate society of our country join hands to promote education and learning by using media, then we can surely make Pakistan grow strongly and steadily. FM radio stations are an amazing form of media, please don’t waste them rather use them………..gaanay bajaanay or gaanay suunay say humari zindagi nahe sawarnay wali……just think what are you leaving for your future generations to come. When ever my 4 year old daughter closes her school book just to listen a song whether its on radio or t.v., I sat their helpless. Media is unavoidable and inevitable…..its about time these media giants realize their responsibilities.