PCB engineers told management that the new antenna needed to be replaced but a new transmitter was bought instead. — File

LARKANA The transmission of FM 101 Larkana, off the air since December 2008, has not been restored yet, much to the frustration of listeners most of whom have switched over to other private radio channels.

Sources in the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation's Larkana offices said that the radio's transmission went off the air after strong winds and heavy rains brought it down last year.

The Medium Wave Radio also went off air on Dec 27 for a brief period after developing technical faults, said the sources.

The Frequency Modulation or briefly called the FM 101 channel was inaugurated by Ms Benazir Bhutto on Sept 26, 1995 but ironically, the FM 101 as well as the Medium Wave Radio failed to broadcast live coverage of her first death anniversary, the sources said.

The Medium Wave Radio's transmission was restored later on but the FM 100 continues to linger on.

The PBC's technical staff erected the new mast for FM 101 and fitted an antenna but they found after test trial that the antenna did not synchronize with the transmitter.

The engineers said that without a new antenna compatible with the transmitter the channel's transmissions could not be restored.

They informed the director general of PBC about the situation but instead of installing correct antenna the PBC management decided to replace the fine US-made transmitter of one KW with a 2.5 KW transmitter of lower standard, said the sources.

But the engineers wing and the technical staff preferred installing a new antenna instead of replacing the transmitter, said the sources.

There was only 30 per cent synchronization between the transmitter and the antenna, they said, adding that by then most of the listeners must have switched over to private channels.

They said that Medium Wave Larkana could not go on air during loadshedding because the station had no standby generator.

Rs30 million had been allocated in last year's budget for the purchase of transmitter but the PBC failed to buy it and the government had again kept the same amount in the current financial year for the purpose, said the sources.