10th Anniversary of Asian Broadcasting Network – Urdu Talk Radio

Owais Mughal

Asian Broadcasting Network (ABN) is a non-profit organization serving the south Asian community in Chicago area since 1997. Two weeks ago they celebrated their 10th anniversary of community service and that has prompted us to write this post to introduce them to our readership. Their radio service is not limited to Chicago as they can also be heard worldwide on the web at: www.abnchicago.org

The Photo above shows the Asian Broadcasting Network’s team at their 10th Anniversary function

ABN’s radio service is hosted by a team of very enthusiastic boradcasters which comprises of a good mix of youth as well as seasoned people.

One person who was instrumental in forming ABN is Dr. Mujahid Ghazi . He started his career from Radio Pakistan Karachi during his school days and continued his passion of journalism and broadcasting alongwith his medicine studies at Sindh Medical College. While working at Radio Pakistan, he also hosted some famous programs like bazm-e-talaba and aap ki sehat .

After emigrating to USA, Dr Ghazi was instrumental in starting the ‘jeevay Pakistan’ TV show in 1994 which ran till 2000. In 1997 Asian Broadcasting Network was founded. A radio program called ‘Talk Radio 1590’ was started. This urdu talk radio has the distinction of being the first of its kind in North America.

Besides providing entertainment, the ABN Urdu Talk Radio has also been involved in community service at different levels. It has provided relief activities for the community members in need, for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina in US, earthquake, floods etc in Pakistan and many more. The radio service also creates awareness in the community about different socio-economic and political matters by having discussions on them.

Of late, the ABN Radio team has got some fresh faces who have the flare for broadcasting. The list contains IT Professionals, Engineers, Technical Writers and Finance Professionals who are working hard at ABN apart from their professional resposibilities.

ABN Radio goes on air every sunday from noon to 3 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST). There are two segments in the ABN transmission. From noon to one p.m. CST, a program called ‘jawaan fikar’ is presented. Hosts of this segment include Khurram Habib, Zeeshan Farooq, Jibran Ilyas, Sadia Khan and Suha Khan.

Then from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. second segment called the Talk Radio Chicago goes on air. In this segment Dr. Mujahid Ghazi leads the moderation along with Haseeb Khan who is a recent addition to the team. Sabahat Ashraf brings the latest news from science and technology world from the Silicon Valley. Shahran Asim from New York presents a literary mini-segment called ‘mujjalla’. Occasionally Ali Hasan Cemendtaur from California also chips in with some thought provoking mini-segment.

From time to time ABN also invites Lawyers, Physicians, Journalists, Political leaders, social activists, Religious leaders, Entertainers, Poets, Sportsmen as guests in the show. From Shabaha Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Ayaz Amir, Dr.Ayesha Siddiqa, Aneeq Ahmed to Khushbakht Shujaat all have been invited as guest in the show to discuss various issues and problems faced by the South Asian Communities at home and abroad.

Besides entertainment and community service, ABN has recently got yet another honor. Their broadcast segments are currently being used by the South Asian Language Program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The ABN segments are used in the advanced level course of Urdu at U-of-M.

As mentioned above, 2007 is the 10th year in service of ABN Urdu Talk Radio. We want to cangratulate the whole team and contributors of ABN Urdu Talk Radio at this happy occasion. Reaching the 10-year old milestone is indeed an achievement.

Following is a video clip of ABN’s 10th anniversary function which was covered by ARY Digital.