BBC Asian Network
Encyclopedia
BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

 and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 (Television Centre & Yalding House). Its 'parent' station is BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 at Yalding House and it is part of the BBC Audio and Music division.

BBC Asian Network broadcasts mainly in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, but also have programmes in five south Asian languages – Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

/Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

, Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

, Gujurati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

 and the Mirpuri dialect of the Potwari language. The station's output consists largely of music and talk programmes, although there is a daily documentary series Asian Network Reports and a now-discontinued daily soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 Silver Street
Silver Street
Silver Street was a radio soap opera, the first such to be aimed at the British South Asian community, and was broadcast on the BBC Asian Network. It was introduced in 2004 as part of the Sonia Deol show, which was replaced from 24 April 2006 by the Anita Rani show, and until 12 May 2006 each...

. Over mid-2009, the Asian network provided coverage at mela
Mela
Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning 'gathering' or 'to meet' or a Fair. It is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gathering and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sports. In rural traditions melas or village fairs were of great importance...

s across the UK as part of the 'Summer Of Melas'.

In March 2010 the station, which has the highest per-listener budget of all UK radio stations, was threatened with closure, along with BBC 6 Music. A year later, following consultation the BBC Trust announced it was reconsidering its plan to close the station in favour of reducing its budget, although it stressed no final decision had been made.

History

Origins

BBC television had broadcast an Asian news programme, Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan
Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan
Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan was a BBC television programme broadcast from 1968 until 1982.It was the first major programming for Hindi and Urdu-speaking viewers and represented the beginnings of regular broadcasting in the UK for non-native English speakers...

, since 1968 from its studios in Birmingham. Whilst pioneering, this series followed a traditional news and current affairs format.

In 1977 BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The station broadcasts from studios in Leicester on 104.9 FM, on DAB, and via the BBC iPlayer.-History:...

, in recognition of the growth of the importance and size of the South Asian population in Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

, introduced a daily show aimed primarily at that community in the city. At one point the audience consisted of 67 per cent of the South Asian community in Leicester. In 1979, BBC WM
BBC WM
BBC WM is the BBC Local Radio service for the West Midlands, South Staffordshire, north Worcestershire and north Warwickshire, operated by BBC Birmingham. Launched on 9 November 1970 as BBC Radio Birmingham, it broadcasts from central Birmingham on 95.6 FM, DAB and on the internet...

, the BBC radio station for the Midlands, followed Leicester's lead and introduced a similar daily show.

By 1988, plans had been laid for shared South Asian programmes across the Midlands, on the AM frequencies of Radio Leicester and BBC WM, and on 30 October 1988 The Asian Network was launched on BBC WM and BBC Radio Leicester with a combined output of 70 hours per week.

In 1996 the station was relaunched as The BBC Asian Network with its own AM frequencies in the Midlands. It was led by founder member Vijay Sharma from Leicester.

In 1998, the station got its own newsroom and reporters in a project led by Mike Curtis, the news editor at BBC Radio Lincolnshire who had also worked at Radios Cornwall and Oxford and as a senior journalism trainer for local radio in London.

BBC Asian Network goes national

By 2000, the station's output had shifted focus from the Midlands to the UK as a whole, and the station became a truly national network on Monday 28 October 2002 when it was relaunched for the DAB
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....

 Digital Radio system.

In January 2006, the BBC announced that they were investing an extra £1m in the BBC Asian Network, and increasing the number of full-time staff by 30% in a bid to make British South Asian interests 'a mainstream part of the corporation's output' . The internal management structure of the station changed with Bob Shennan, then Controller of BBC Radio 5Live, taking over as controller, with a new Head of News, Husain Husaini (a senior editor in BBC Five Live), a Head of Music Mark Strippel Markie Mark
Markie Mark
Markie Mark is the Head of Music at the BBC Asian Network from January 2006. Markie Mark was born in Hounslow in 1974 and is a DJ with the Panjabi Hit Squad.In 2003 he won the "Commitment to the Scene" award at the UK Asian Music Awards,...

 – a music DJ and former member of Punjabi Hit Squad – and a Network Manager, Mike Curtis (previously Asian Network's News and Sports Editor).

Branding and schedule changes

In April 2006 the first wave of schedule changes were introduced with further changes coming into effect on 14 May and 21 May with weekend changes occurring from 17 June. In August 2007, the Asian Network received a new logo as part of a general re-brand of all national BBC stations. In 2009, this was re-branded again to add prominence to the Asian aspect of the logo.

From 2010, another change to the schedule took place. Sonia Deol
Sonia Deol
Sonia Deol is a British radio and television presenter who has presented the Sonia Deol Show on the BBC Asian Network.-Background:Born as Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu in England to Punjabi Sikh parents...

 fronts the 10.00am to 12.30pm, Monday to Friday show on BBC Asian Network. Sonia, who previously presented a Friday afternoon show on the station, will move to the new weekday slot from Monday 8 February. Former weekend presenter Tommy Sandhu
Tommy Sandhu
Tommy Sandhu is a British DJ, Remixer, producer and television presenter who shot to fame after he appeared on the dating game show Blind Date with Cilla Black. Tommy is best known for his trademark shaved head and cheeky nature....

 hosts the Breakfast show from 7am till 10am (replacing Adil Ray). Nihal, who was on afternoons from Monday to Thursday (1.00-3.00pm), added Fridays to his schedule.

As a result of the changes, morning presenters Adil Ray and Nikki Bedi left the station after nearly six years. station controller Andy Parfitt
Andy Parfitt
Andrew Parfitt is an English radio administrator who was the Controller of BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom, He held that role from 1998-2011, taking over from Matthew Bannister...

 says: "I thank Nikki for her excellent contribution to the station over many years. I wish her well for the future and will be helping her develop her BBC radio career. "Jas Rao, who currently presents drivetime, will continue to work on projects for the network."

The changes came into effect on 8 February 2010.Later in 2010, Tommy Sandhu moved from drivetime to Breakfast, Noreen Khan - who had replaced Sandhu at weekend breakfast following the earlier changes - took over drivetime, and Sunny and Shay from Channel 4 programme `The Family` took over the helm of the weekend breakfast show.

Drama output

One of the most significant programmes in the Asian Network lineup was an ongoing Asian soap opera Silver Street
Silver Street
Silver Street was a radio soap opera, the first such to be aimed at the British South Asian community, and was broadcast on the BBC Asian Network. It was introduced in 2004 as part of the Sonia Deol show, which was replaced from 24 April 2006 by the Anita Rani show, and until 12 May 2006 each...

 which was first broadcast in 2004. Storylines focused on the lives of a primarily British South Asian community in an English town of unspecified name and location, with themes that generally related to issues that affect the daily lives of British South Asians and their neighbours

Following a cutting of episode lengths to five minutes per day and falling listenership, on 16 November 2009 the BBC announced that they would be cancelling Silver Street. The last episode was broadcast in March 2010.

The cancellation grew out of criticisms of the Asian Network in the BBC Trust's annual report. In July 2009 it was revealed that the Asian Network had lost over 20% of its listeners in a single year and, per listener, was the most costly and expensive BBC radio station to run.

Silver Street was replaced by monthly half hour dramas and in August 2010, BBC Asian Network announced it would be launching a new drama season from 1st September 2010. According to a BBC Press Release "Titled BBC Asian Network Presents... the new drama strand is committed to providing distinctive, original and impactful content, all relevant to the target audience."

Possible closure

On 26 February 2010 The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 reported that Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...

, Director General of the BBC, proposed closing the station in a bid to scale back BBC operations and allow commercial rivals more room. The proposal of closure – along with BBC 6 Music – was later confirmed on 2 March. A letter was written to the BBC Trust and signed by various people – although the number of signatories also included a number signing their name at least more than once; as both a single name and as part of a collective, with many AN listeners advocating keeping their station at the expense of the more popular 6 Music, although the BBC Trust later rejected plans to close 6 Music and approved the plans to close AN. On 14 March 2011, the BBC announced it was reconsidering its plan to close the station in favour of reducing its budget in half, although it emphasised no final decision had been made.

With the departure of Andy Parfitt in the summer of 2011, the decision was taken to place the Asian Network under Bob Shennan, Controller of Radio 2. Shennan was in charge of the network when he was Controller of Five Live and knew the station and its management team well. Shennan will now oversee the possibly drastic changes to the schedule and staffing of the radio station which will follow from the wider BBC`s cuts plans.

Programmes and presenters

The BBC Asian Network features a generally regular schedule of programming in English and South Asian Languages. Many programmes are named after the usual presenter. Programmes are presented in English except where noted otherwise.

Current programmes

  • Sonia Deol
    Sonia Deol
    Sonia Deol is a British radio and television presenter who has presented the Sonia Deol Show on the BBC Asian Network.-Background:Born as Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu in England to Punjabi Sikh parents...

     (Weekday mid-mornings / 10:00-12:30
  • Ray Khan (Early Breakfast every weekday morning from 6–7am)
  • Tommy Sandhu
    Tommy Sandhu
    Tommy Sandhu is a British DJ, Remixer, producer and television presenter who shot to fame after he appeared on the dating game show Blind Date with Cilla Black. Tommy is best known for his trademark shaved head and cheeky nature....

     – (Breakfast / 07:00 - 10:00)
  • Nihal
    DJ Nihal
    DJ Nihal is an English radio and TV presenter, as well as club night promoter and DJ, currently broadcasting on BBC Radio 1, BBC Asian Network and since August 6, 2010 BBC Radio 5 Live...

     (The afternoon phone in programme / 13:00-15:00)
  • Friction
    Bobby Friction
    Paramdeep Singh Sehdev , better known as Bobby Friction, is a DJ, television presenter and radio presenter from west London.He studied Contemporary Arts at The Nottingham Trent University....

     (The Station 'Flagship' music show Mon-Thurs / 22:00-01:00)
  • Noreen Khan (Weekday Drive / 15:00-18:00)
  • Murtz
    Murtz
    Murtaza Ali, better known as Murtz, is a British Asian television and radio presenter.After a long running television series Mutz Cutz with the UK's largest Indian Satellite channel Zee TV, Murtz became a recognised personality establishing himself with a massive cult following to thousands of...

     (The Request Show / 14:00-17:00)
  • Panjabi Hit Squad
    Panjabi Hit Squad
    Panjabi Hit Squad are a group of Asian artists signed to the UK imprint of Hip-Hop giant, Def Jam. The members all grew up in Southall, UK. As well as working with various high-profile acts such as Mariah Carey, Ashanti, and Sway, they also work with community projects such as youth project BBC...

     (A mix of Hip-Hop, R'n'B, House, Bhangra and Bollywood on Saturdays / 18:00 - 21:00)
  • The Chart Show
    The Chart Show
    The Chart Show is a music video programme which ran in the UK on Channel 4 between 1986 and 1988, then on ITV between 1989 and 1998. The production company was Video Visuals, and was credited as "A Yorkshire Television Presentation" from 1993 and 1998...

     (It was announced on Monday 22nd February that Bobby Friction will takeover the chart and present 'The World's First Download Chart compiled by the Official Charts Company this is due to start at the new time of 15:00-18:00 on 27 March 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/02_february/22/chart.shtml )
  • Love Bollywood every Saturday and Sunday with Raj & Pablo consisting of News, Entertainment & Gossip about Bollywood
    Bollywood
    Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

  • Music Programmes on the BBC Asian Network
    Music Programmes on the BBC Asian Network
    The BBC Asian Network, a BBC National Radio station has a number of specifically music programmes in various styles of music aimed at the British South Asian Community in the UK.-Former Music Programmes on the BBC Asian Network:*Sound...

     – Music in various styles and in English and in various South Asian Languages
  • Regional Language Programmes on the BBC Asian Network
    Regional Language Programmes on the BBC Asian Network
    The BBC Asian Network, a BBC National Radio station has a number of programmes in South Asian languages aimed at a specific community although since 24 April 2005 under schedule changes as part of a broader review of BBC programming the BBC Asian Network has shifted towards a greater emphasis on...

     in Mirpuri
    Mirpuri
    Mirpuri may refer to:* Potwari language, an Indo-Aryan Lahnda language related to Hindko* Mahan Singh Mirpuri , General in the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh* Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, city in Pakistan-administered Jammu & Kashmir...

    , Bengali
    Bengali language
    Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

    , Gujarati
    Gujarati language
    Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

    , Punjabi
    Punjabi language
    Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

     and in Hindi
    Hindi
    Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

     and Urdu
    Urdu
    Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

  • Devotional Music in various languages on weekdays and Devotional Sounds – Islam/Hindu/Sikh on weekends in various languages
  • BBC Asian Network - Special News Reports
  • Mic Check with Kan D Man & Limelight*- Grime, Funky House, Hip-Hop and providing a platform for fresh new Asian mc's! Every Saturday night from 11 pm – 1am
  • DJ Kayper
    DJ Kayper
    DJ Kayper is the stage name for Kaajal Bakrania, a DJ and Radio Presenter from the UK born in 1983. She is of Gujarati Indian descent . She blends classic and current Hip-Hop, R&B, Reggae/Dancehall, 80's and Soul with Bhangra and Bollywood tracks....

     – Hip-Hop, Desi Beats and Big Guests! Every Friday night from 10–1 am
  • Bhangra Mixtape with Sonny Ji - Bhangra mashed up with D&B, Dubstep, House and loads more from 9pm-1am every Saturday night

Management


Presenters


Reporters


Former presenters


External links

  • Origins of BBC Asian Network
  • BBC Asian Network relaunched on DAB at bbc.co.uk
    Bbc.co.uk
    BBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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