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RADIO
PAKISTAN LAHORE VERSUS ALL
INDIA RADIO JALANDHAR Harjap Singh Aujla
Prior to the 1947 division of
Punjab, Lahore was not only the political capital of the PUNJAB Province,
it was also the educational and cultural capital of the region. This great
ancient city was rapidly developing as the film and theatre centre of
Punjab and North Western India. Radio has been the forerunner of
television all over the world. To the city of Lahore, the opening of a
radio station in 1937 with the full complement of a state of the art
studio complex, was a great gift not only to the premier city of the
province, but to the entire North Western area.
Kartar Singh Duggal, a famous
Punjabi writer originally joined as one of the top officials at the newly
developing All India Radio Peshawar. But within a few years he was posted
as a senior official at Lahore Radio Station. Around 1940, Jiwan Lal
Mattoo, an expert in classical, semi-classical and folk music became the
head of the music department at All India Radio Lahore. He was assisted by
Sardar Budh Singh Taan among several other maestros. All was going fine until the end of
1946. But the tremors of March 1947 riots in and around Rawalpindi were
felt in Lahore too. Being a government owned broadcasting centre, the
sentiments were kept under remarkable control by the authorities. But as
the month of August approached, the thus far imperceptibly slow exodus of
Hindus and Sikh employees and approved artists took the shape of a flood.
At about this time Mohini Hameed and Usma Gilani took the reigns of
announcements. They were both great comperes in their own right. Rehmat
Qawaal and party of Malerkotla, a highly accomplished group, were approved
as radio artists around 1946. They had the option of living in Pakistan,
but they preferred to live in East Punjab.
The exodus of Hindu and Sikh
employees of Lahore Radio Station to the neighbouring city of Amritsar
gave an opportunity to them to demand a radio station for the East Punjab
region. The city of Amritsar lost half of its Muslim population, but
inflow of refugees from Pakistan far exceeded the number that left the
city. The city was bursting at the seams. A lot of the refugees had lost
touch with their next of kin. The confusion was getting worst by the day.
This was the time when creation of a radio station in Amritsar became dire
necessity. Being a writer and a broadcaster
himself, Kartar Singh Duggal launched the written campaign for opening of
a new radio station in East Punjab. Other displaced radio employees were
also keen to get back their jobs and within their own province. Some were
offered jobs in far off places like Lucknow, but the lucky ones were
adjusted in All India Radio Delhi. Kartar Singh Duggal composed a well
meaning, well argumented letter for opening a radio station in Punjab. It
was carried to the Government of India by Sardar Swaran Singh, a powerful
political leader of Jalandhar. The main reason quoted for justifying the
need of opening the new radio station was to communicate information about
the incoming and missing refugees. Radio Pakistan Lahore was doing a
splendid job in communicating the whereabouts of the Muslim refugees
entering West Punjab. The same facility was found missing in the Indian
Punjab. Within months, the Government of
India decided to open two transmitters in East Punjab. One of course was
bound to be located in Amritsar, the then largest city in Indian Punjab
and its industrial and commercial capital. Amritsar was also the main
gateway of India from the Pakistan and Afghanistan side. A majority of the
Hindu and Sikh refugees entered India through the Amritsar border. The
other transmitter was authorized for Jullundur (now Jalandhar), the
interim de-facto capital of East Punjab. This was also the home city of
Sardar Swaran Singh. Two low powered (one kilowatt each)
transmitters were somehow found getting rusted in the stores of All India
Radio. One was dispatched to Amritsar and the other was sent to Jalandhar.
Unfortunately, the one meant for Jalandhar was in a very poor condition.
Kartar Singh Duggal was appointed the first station director of the newly
created broadcasting entity All India Radio Jalandhar – Amritsar. On his
insistence a better transmitter was found and dispatched by truck to
Jalandhar. The towers on which the transmitting elements were supposed to
be installed were not there. Initially a bamboo tower, consisting of
several bamboo poles riveted together, to fabricate a temporary tower was
improvised for Jalandhar. It was a safety hazard during stormy weather. On
expert advice, it was dismantled after some test transmissions and a
properly designed steel tower was erected for both Jalandhar and Amritsar.
In the meanwhile, All India Radio Delhi started two bulletins in Punjabi,
one in the morning and the other in the evening. Initially the dialect
used for these bulletins was Pothohari (spoken in Rawalpindi), but later
on it was replaced by Standard Punjabi spoken in the Lahore Division in
Central Punjab. These Standard Punjabi bulletins are still continuing with
the addition of a third one in the afternoons every day. These are being
relayed by the radio stations located in East Punjab. Between June and September of 1948,
both transmitters were inaugurated. The day time range of Radio Pakistan
Lahore was more than sixty miles. On the other hand the day time range of
each of the transmitters in Jalandhar and Amritsar was approximately
fifteen miles. This limitation ruled out the start of an afternoon service
from these transmitters. Most of the important programs of this new
station were scheduled in the evenings after sunset. The evening
transmission used to start at six (6pm) and the sign off time was 10:30pm.
The morning service used to sign on at 7am and the sign off time was 9am.
During noon and afternoon, everybody in the Indian Punjab listened to
Radio Pakistan Lahore and the shortwave services of other stations. First
general elections were held in 1952 in India and augmentation of power was
planned after that. In 1953, All India Radio Jalandhar received a fifty
kilowatt transmitter with a decent all day range. The low powered
transmitter at Amritsar was dismantled. Once All India Radio Jalandhar –
Amritsar was up and running, all the staff and casual artists of Radio
Pakistan Lahore, based in East Punjab joined in the same capacity at the
new radio station. But the best names like Surinder Kaur had relocated to
Bombay and her elder sister Parkash Kaur started living in New Delhi. Asa
Singh Mastana and Vidya Nath Seth also lived in New Delhi. Bhai Santa
Singh, one of the senior-most Sikh religious musicians left Amritsar
around 1948-49 and started rendering devotional music in 1949-50 at All
India Radio Delhi. Budh Singh Taan settled in Lucknow area of U.P. Master
Rattan and Professor Sohan Singh became the leading exponents of classical
music at All India Radio Jalandhar – Amritsar. Later on Madan Lal Bali
also joined as a classical singer. Lachhman Dass Sindhu was the only
artist, who used to sing Multani Qafis at All India Radio Jalandhar –
Amritsar. Rehmat Qawaal became the leading Qawaal at All India Radio
Jalandhar – Amritsar. Bhai Samund Singh, an “A” class singer, became
the leading most Sikh religious musician at All India Radio Jalandhar –
Amritsar. Sardar Jodh Singh of Gujjranwala was a headmaster at Lyallpur.
After partition of Punjab, he settled in Jalandhar. Soon he joined the
service of All India Radio at Jalandhar. He was made incharge of the
program for the rural listeners. He also handled the religious
programming. Sardar Sohan Singh Misha, a professor by profession, joined
All India Radio Jalandhar as the incharge of spoken word in Punjabi. His
professionalism helped immensely in raising the standard of Punjabi
programming at All India Radio Jalandhar. In 1959, for one year Davinder
Singh, a soft speaker protégé of Amrita Pritam, was also posted at All
India Radio Jalandhar. Noorjehan came back to Lahore from
Bombay before the end of 1947. Munawwar Sultana was another great singer
at Radio Pakistan Lahore. Around early 1950, Zeenat Begum also arrived in
Lahore from Bombay. Another singing sensation Zubaida Khanum opened up
with a bang in 1950 in Lahore. She became Pakistan’s answer to Lata
Mangeshkar the Great. Iqbal Bano was an asset of Radio Pakistan Lahore.
Suraiya Multanikar was another great singer. Radio Pakistan Lahore’s
leading male singers included a great classical singer Barqat Ali Khan.
The others on the lighter side included Inayat Hussain Bhatti, Ali Bakhsh
Zahoor, Tufail Niazi (who had arrived from Kapurthala in East Punjab),
Sain Akhtar Hussain and Qawaals Mubarik Ali Fateh Ali Khan. On the musical front Radio Pakistan
Lahore enjoyed a clear edge over All India Radio Jalandhar – Amritsar.
As the time passed, Punjabi was gradually replaced by Urdu at all the
stations of Radio Pakistan. On the Indian side, the standard of Punjabi
music kept improving slowly. All India Radio Jalandhar and the music
industry of East Punjab has produced great Punjabi vocalists like Jagat
Singh Jagga, Lal Chand Yamla Jatt, Puran Shahkoti, Amarjit Gurdaspuri,
Sharief Iddu, Barqat Sidhu, Sardul Sikandar, Sabarkoti, Hans Raj Hans,
Master Saleeem, Kaler Kanth, Puran Chand Wadali and Piare Lal Wadali,
Nachhattar Gill, Feroze, Mangi Mahal, Amarinder Gill and several other
male singers. The good female singers in India
Punjab included Joginder Kaur, Ajit Kaur, Ripudaman Sally, Gurmit Bawa,
Narinder Biba, Jagmohan Kaur, Sarbjit Kaur, Amar Noori to name a few. In
music Radio Pakistan Lahore still has a great edge, but the gap is closing
slowly. In technical and science based programming All India Radio
Jalandhar has an edge. But if Lahore really wants it, it is capable of
preparing and presenting top notch scientific programs too. During the wars the two stations
have been hostile to each other. But in peace they have been enriching the
culture of the Punjabis. We, the Punjabis living on each side of the
barbed wire fence, want a healthy competition between the two leading
radio stations on both sides of the Radcliffe Line.
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There
was no dearth of talent in this culturally rich city and additional talent
came in hordes from 
Parkash
Kaur was approved as a radio singer around 1940. Noorjehan, then known as
Baby Noorjehan got approved in 1939. A great artist Zeenat Begum became a
radio singer around 1940. Mohammad Rafi and Surinder Kaur jumped on the
bandwagon of All India Radio Lahore in 1943 as folk artists. Ali Bakhsh
Zahoor joined a little later. Bhai Chhaila of Patiala used to travel
nearly two hundred miles to perform at the radio station in Lahore. Most
of his songs were also recorded in two studios located in Lahore. S.
Mohinder, popular music director of the fifties, sixties and seventies,
was approved as a radio singer at All India Radio Lahore in 1945. Before
that Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish was approved as a radio singer in 1942. A
great exponent of “Ghazals”, Mallika Pukhraj was one of the most
respected singers at All India Radio Lahore. 
The
drama department of the radio station had most of the personalities from
the theatre and cinema industry. They included Bhag Singh, Ramesh Thakur,
Pran Nath, Om Parkash, Jagdish Sethi, Dina Nath Zutshi and Kamini Kaushal
amongst a host of other artists. The script writers included Rajinder
Singh Bedi, Ramanand Sagar and several great writers from the Muslim
community.