PBC Peshawar sets up first digital archive library

Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation’s Peshawar station has completed the Muhammad Yaqoob Bangash Memorial Audio Library. It contains hundreds of spools converted into digital formats.

The facility is the first-ever digital archive library that has hundreds of cassettes and spools placed in proper order in cupboards, above which photos of known and old Pashto folksingers are also displayed. The library has preserved old audiotapes and rare photographs of old singers and artistes as well.

“We have digitalised 10,000 hours of recordings so far,” PBC Peshawar Station Director Laiq Zada Laiq told The News. He said the library has data of songs sung by around 500 singers while it also has an interview of the first station director of the station, Aslam Khattak.