Behind the radio waves

Ashraf-Uz-Zaman Khan in his library

Ashraf joined the radio since its inception, during the British rule in 1940. He continued his career through Bangladesh Betar.

Ashraf was one of the 16 employees selected by the then British authority. He joined as the Programme Assistant at the Calcutta relay station of All India Radio in 1940.

To quote Ashraf, "Radio was the major source of entertainment in those days. At that time the aim of radio was to extend support to culture, including music and theatre. My field was music. News was broadcast from the Delhi station. We also relayed BBC programmes in those days."

The early days with All India Radio are still etched in Ashraf's memory. According to him, "Music exponents like Sachin Dev Burman, Pankaj Mallick, Angur Bala, Indu Bala, Manobendra Mukhopadhyay and other noted singers regularly performed in the musical programmes produced by me. I also took auditions of renowned musicians like Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay for their recruitment as modern singers.

'In those days both Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti were also regarded as modern songs. Moreover, we used to broadcast live performances from theatre halls, as recording systems in studios were unavailable then. At that time there were six professional theatre troupes such as Natyamandir, Star and Minarva Theatre in Calcutta, which staged Bangla plays. The plays continued throughout the night and using telephone wires we transferred the performance to the relay station. From the station we aired the live stage plays. We used live acoustics at the relay station as fillers between the scenes."

After Partition, Ashraf joined the then Pakistan Radio as the Director (programme). From then onwards there was a change in the programme patterns of radio as well as the government's approach to broadcasting. Ashraf says, "Broadcasting of Tagore songs was banned for three months by the then Pakistan government. Later, they allocated 15 minutes to broadcast Tagore songs each day. Genres like bhajan and kirtan were totally banned. And live broadcast of stage plays were not possible as no professional theatre troupes were available at that time.

"Then Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, me and a few others began writing lyrics to fill up the vacuum. Later, we began working on radio plays and I wrote a good number of them, which I'm still continuing."

Ashraf retired as the Director General (DG) of Bangladesh Radio in 1972. Commenting on a memorable incident during his kaleidoscopic journey at different positions of radio, Ashraf says, "In 1971, I was the Regional Director of Pakistan Radio. It was scheduled to broadcast the historic speech of 7th March delivered by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, live.

"All of a sudden Pakistani military regime ordered us to postpone the broadcast. However, the employees of radio wanted to broadcast the speech. At the risk of my life, I ordered to record the speech and as a protest against military regime we stopped broadcasting of radio service from then East Pakistan. Then the Advisor to the Governor of East Pakistan, Major General Rao Farman Ali ordered me to restart the broadcasting service immediately. I told him that unless the military allows us to broadcast the March 7 speech it would not be possible for me to resume the services. Later General Farman Ali Khan allowed us to broadcast the historic speech of Bagabandhu. We aired the speech on March 8 at 8:30 am."

Ashraf was the co-ordinator of the first talent hunt, titled Nabokallol. Many renowned singers of the country came in to the spotlight. To quote Ashraf, "Singers like Abdul Hadi, Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya, Subir Nandi and others were introduced through the programme."

Ashraf Uz- Zaman is also a novelist, playwright and freelance journalist.

The Culture Desk of The Daily Star wishes him the best on his birthday.