I can only add that is seems exceedingly curious to me that Pakistani film
halls regularly show Bollywood films, that Bollywood Hindustani is as familiar
to the average Pakistani ear as the Punjabi version and that if anything, one
could almost empathise with a fear that Indian culture is swamping Pakistan,
rather than vice versa. Except that this fear is not perceived on the street,
but in the ivory towers of Pakistani officialdom.
How does this drivel get past the editors? Could they be hoping for a transfer
to the in-house TV channel, which doubtless pays better, as long as one does
not mind getting up and screaming for war (to fight to the last drop of our
jawan's blood) every now and then?
How does one get rid of this kind of thinking from the musty corridors of
power? Some might think the answer is education, but to do that needs
communication.
btw Sajan, even the WPC has engineers who believe that there are two kinds of
FM - one that works above ground, and another beneath. That is why New York has
72 stations (does it still? They may have gone DAB by now) but Mumbai, lacking
a subway, cannot be permitted any such thing*. I do not believe though, that
any of them have been able to get a monograph on the subject published, despite
their undeniable authority.
* Also, although this may be entirely unrelated, if Mumbai is allowed 72
stations, the clamour to do just about anything to get a license may just die
down. Then what use will there be for suitcases?
Vickram
http://communicall.wordpress.com
http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com
>________________________________
>From: sajan venniyoor <[email protected]>
>To: CR India <[email protected]>
>Sent: Sunday, 14 August 2011, 14:22
>Subject: [cr-india] borderline stupidity
>
>
>Today's Times of India reports that Punjab border farmers still tune into Pak
>FM radio stations. According to the farmer families on the fringes of
>Ferozepur, the limited range of "national radio" broadcasts and the absence of
>any local FM station have kept radio services from Pakistan the most popular
>source of entertainment.
>
>Around the same time last year, the Indian government had become alarmed by
>the popularity of Nepal's FM radio channels in Bihar, along the Indo-Nepal
>border. According to various sources, some half a dozen Nepal FM radio
>stations are broadcasting programmes ("anti-India advertisements and vulgar
>songs", according to one outraged newspaper report) into Bihar, especially
>Madhepura, Supaul, Madhubani, Kishanganj, Araria, Sheohar, Saharsa,
>Muzaffarpur, and East and West Champaran districts.
>
>
>Regulars on this mailing list will recognize some of those districts as the
>ones where, during the 2008 Kosi floods, the Community Radio Forum had
>proposed setting up Emergency Radio Stations. The proposal was turned down:
>one of the government worthies, a corpulent Noah who sat on the file till the
>floods had receded, told us, "You may broadcast flood-related messages on the
>surface, but how can we know what you will broadcast below that?", giving us a
>fascinating scientific insight into hitherto unknown capabilities of FM radio.
>
>But back in present day Bihar, all these ostensibly anti-Indian Nepali FM
>channels seem to thrive, for some odd reason, on Indian support. According to
>one report, "advertisements by traders and industrialists belonging to Indian
>markets form the lion’s share of revenue for the channels, but," it adds
>bitterly, "it is spent otherwise."
>
>
>'Otherwise' presumably means a spot of India bashing.
>
>
>And it's not just traders and industrialists who advertise over these evil
>radio stations: Bihar elections are a windfall for Nepal's FM channels, with
>candidates for Bihar's assembly polls "finding the FM radio stations of
>neighbouring Nepal quite handy in wooing voters" particularly in the absence
>of similar FM channels on the Indian side of the border. Fancy that!
>
>
>While Intelligence Bureau officials in Bihar spend sleepless nights worrying
>about the misuse of Nepal’s FM radio "by Pakistan’s Inter-Services
>Intelligence (ISI) and Nepal’s Maoists for propaganda in villages bordering
>the Himalayan nation", their colleagues in Arunachal Pradesh are an even more
>harried lot. "Chinese radio blares in Arunachal Pradesh" screamed one headline
>in 2007, pointing out that the "people in border districts of Arunachal
>Pradesh have easier access to Chinese radio and TV than Indian" and that
>"border villagers are accessing information and entertainment from Chinese
>radio with greater efficacy than AIR."
>
>
>Oh dear.
>
>
>So what does the Indian government do to counter the popularity of Pakistani,
>Chinese and Nepali FM channels along the border? In Bihar, for instance, they
>set up AIR relay centres in the border districts, which will relay AIR Patna's
>programmes in chaste Hindi while Nepal's FM channels along the border continue
>to broadcast -- without a doubt anti-Indian propaganda interspersed with
>vulgar songs -- in Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithili, Magahi and other local dialects
>spoken in Bihar and Eastern UP as well as the Terai.
>As one of the young farmers along the Punjab border said, while humming
>cheerfully -- and unpatriotically, I'm sure -- 'to the lyrics of famous songs
>sung by Pakistan's' singers, "Despite the service by Prasar Bharti, we have
>never had the opportunity to regularly listen to any of the famous Punjab
>singers. [...] It's high time the government had an FM station here or some
>private channel for us. We want to listen to our own legends as well."
>
>
>http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/9596336.cms
>
>
>Sajan
>Join the Community Radio Forum. For membership details, please go to
>www.crforum.in
>
>Join the Community Radio Forum. For membership details, please go to
www.crforum.in
