KARACHI: PBC stops promoting new singers: Financial crunch
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 7: The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation no longer introduces and promotes new singers the way it used to in the past.
Radio Pakistan officials point out that after changing the mechanism of engaging new vocalists, the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation does not have the monetary resources to introduce new artists. They add that Radio Pakistan mainly relies on established artists.
The Karachi station director of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, Mohammad Naqi, told Dawn that the Central Production Unit, created about 25 years ago, was entrusted with the task of producing songs which, once approved by the headquarters, were broadcast all over the country from all the centres of the Pakistan Broadcasting Company.
“Apart from producing songs on a regular basis, the Central Production Unit also preserves archival material, such as rare interviews, Mushairas, functions, etc. However, it is a pity that the Central Production Unit, which was previously known as the Transcription Service, has produced few popular songs over the past 10 years or so,” he conceded.
Mr Naqi also admitted that the Central Production Unit preferred established artists to new ones. “Songs produced by the Central Production Unit in Karachi are sent to the headquarters in Islamabad where it is decided whether a song is good or not. If a song is approved, the officials in charge of the Central Production Unit fix the royalty to be paid to the singer. In this way, copyright of the song is acquired by Radio Pakistan,” he explained.
Veteran musician Ibrahim Khan said that because of change in priorities Radio Pakistan did not audition new singers and give them a chance to perform on the air. “All great names of the music world made their debut at Radio Pakistan. If luminaries like Z.A. Bokhari had not given new and inexperienced singers a chance to prove their worth, they would not have been able to put Pakistan on the map,” he said.
Speaking about the significance of auditions, Mr Khan said that at auditions experienced producers, who had a lot of knowledge about music and musical instruments, used to ask vocalists to sing stuff other than what they were good at. “In those days all those singers who were approved or engaged by Radio Pakistan were great singers. It was a great honour to be on the payroll of Radio Pakistan,” he recalled.
Mr Khan said by putting an end to the tradition of playing music live, Radio Pakistan had made it impossible for new artists to prove themselves.
However, a former producer of Radio Pakistan, Hashmat Hussain Jafri, who is still associated with the Central Production Unit, did not see eye to eye with Mr Khan. He said that live Radio programmes had never been good. “It is very difficult for a live music programme to be good. It does not allow singers to do away with their mistakes,” he said.
However, Mr Jafri agreed that by opting for established vocalists only, the Central Production Unit was doing new singers no service. “But it is a simplistic assessment of the situation. The rot really set in when Radio Pakistan became a corporation. Then, a large number of instrumentalists and musicians, who previously worked on a contract basis, were regularized. Music production is not a technical nine-to-five job. It is creative work. The musicians soon started to take their job for granted,” he recalled.
