Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation

The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) is the state-run radio service of Pakistan.

History

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 ref|computerised.

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
** 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.

Radio Pakistan

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.

Regional and International Stations

World Service

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/worldservice.htm Frequency Schedule For World / External Services]

Islamabad Capital Territory

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM 585 khz Islamabad]
* [Voice of Qur'an] - http://www.thevoq.com/
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Islamabad]

indh

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM 828 KHZ Karachi]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM 1008 KHZ Hyderabad]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1000 Larkana]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM 927 KHZ Khairpur]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Karachi]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Hyderabad]

Punjab

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1080 Lahore]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1152 Rawalpindi]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1030 Multan]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1320 Bahawalpur]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1430 Faisalabad (Lyallpur)]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Lahore]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM98 Rawalpindi]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Faisalabad (Lyallpur)]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Sialkot]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Sargodha]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Mianwali]

Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP)

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM540 Peshawar]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1400 Dera Ismail Khan]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1600 Abbottabad]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1580 Chitral]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Peshawar]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Bannu]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Kohat]

Balochistan

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM750 Quetta]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1580 Sibi]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM560 Khuzdar]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1580 Turbat]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Quetta]
* [http://www.fm101.gov.pk/ FM101 Gwadar]

Northern Areas, Jammu & Kashmir

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1510 Gilgit (NA)]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM1560 Skardu (NA)]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM780 Muzaffarabad (AJK)]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ Radio Pakistan AM936 Mirpur (AJK)]

See also

* Radio Pakistan
* List of Pakistani TV and radio Channels
* Pakistan Television

External links

* [http://www.radio.gov.pk Official PBC Radio Pakistan Site]
* [http://www.radio.gov.pk/ext_svc.htm Radio Pakistan Webpage] en icon
* [http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/29/local1.htm Fire destroys 14 studios of Radio Pakistan - DAWN.com]