The media industry rallied around the BBC Asian Network and 6 Music yesterday by nominating them for a large clutch of awards.

The Sony Radio Academy Awards announced yesterday that Asian Network had been nominated for best speech programme and best news special.
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The BBC’s director-general Mark Thompson yesterday acknowledged that the radio stations BBC Asian Network and 6Music were indeed going to be closed.

The corporation officially launched its Strategy Review, proposing that the Asian Network cease as a national digital service.

But the station could be replaced by a network of local services, with reduced hours, that will operate on analogue as well as digital licenses.
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by Sunny Hundal
Editor

Over the years I have been a constant critic of the BBC Asian Network. The station has been the subject of complaints over its confused music policy, not focusing enough on news and current affairs and not doing enough to develop new talent.

But it’s biggest problem has always been poor management. That is now evident more than ever before, given that its management seem to have failed spectacularly to internally make the case to keep the station.

But BBC Asian Network’s survival is important, and there are several reasons why. Here are some:
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by Sunny Hundal
Editor

By Friday afternoon, once the Conservative shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey had “welcomed” the leaked report in The Times, it looked like the BBC Asian Network’s fate was sealed.

The draft report has been widely seen as a response by BBC executives to strong pressure by the Conservative party to get the corporation to cut spending.

They ask why, at a time when the commercial sector is reeling from a downturn in the advertising sector, is the BBC not sharing some of the pain.
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Rumours that BBC Asian Network is going to be shut down have grown stronger today after a report leaked to the The Times newspaper.

The corporation is due to announce an overhaul of services next month.

The newspaper reported this morning that BBC director-general Mark Thompson will signal that ‘an era of expansion’ would be over. One of the drastic cuts to be recommended would be shutting down BBC Asian Network entirely.
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“They’re smart, they’re ambitious and they’re everywhere” — they are India’s mobile elite of professionals, making their mark as engineers, bankers, entrepreneurs and executives across the world.

In a new series for BBC Radio 4, producer and presenter Mukti Jain Campion finds out what lies behind their success and the impact they are making in India as well as abroad.
The three part series will be aired between Monday March 1st and Wednesday March 3rd at 11am.
Listen online for 7 days after broadcast

The Scotland based comedy Fags, Mags & Bags has returned to Radio 4 for the third time after picking up awards for its quirky humour and good writing (episode below).

The series is written by and stars Sanjeev Kohli, as newsagent and confectioner Ramesh Majhu.
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A BBC Asian Network spokesperson today admitted to AIM Magazine that its future was in doubt as senior executives carried out a review of services across the corporation.

The uncertainty was sparked when chief operating officer Caroline Thomson said the BBC was finding it difficult to try and “cater for many disparate groups simultaneously”.

She told a communications committee inquiry in the House of Lords that, “one of the difficulties of the Asian service is its concept. It broadcasts in a number of different languages to an audience that varies from younger to older [listeners].”
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West London based Panjab Radio will broadcast across the UK from December on digital DAB radio.

The company’s managing director Surjit Ghuman told AIM Magazine that he was very pleased to join Asian Network as the only other Asian station available nationally on DAB.
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The BBC presenter Konnie Huq is fronting a documentary for the Asian Network today, reporting on how Asian women in the UK were at high risk of developing mouth cancer as a result of using Gutka.

Gutka is more commonly known as chewing tobacco and is increasingly popular here.
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A BBC Radio 4 documentary to be aired today asks why so many British Asian men are opting to marry women from the sub-continent.

The half-hour documentary is presented and co-produced by Yasmeen Khan, who thinks this cultural phenomenon is unique to the second generation of British Asians.
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Questions around the future of London based Club Asia radio continue to swirl the industry, as a buyer is due to be announced.

There is unconfirmed speculation in the Asian media industry, AIM Magazine can reveal, that the recently bankrupted youth station has been bought by its chief rival Sunrise radio.
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Former Club Asia co-founder Sumerah Ahmed today confirmed to AIM Magazine that the radio station had indeed gone into administration.

She said administrators had finally been appointed as of yesterday.
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The future of east London based Club Asia radio looks uncertain after media regulator Ofcom confirmed that it had gone into administration.

Reports from presenters and industry insiders earlier this week indicated it had started broadcasting erratically and presenters were asked not to come in to work.
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Presenter Bobby Friction has abruptly departed from Radio 1, it was announced yesterday, ending the long-running ‘Bobby Friction & Nihal Present…’ show and splitting up the duo.

An insider at Radio 1 told AIM magazine that their “brand” had become “a bit tired and stale” and it was probably for the best.

Bobby Friction and Nihal’s specialist music show on Radio 1 had been running for seven years and had been nominated for numerous awards.
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While Asian radio stations in the UK generally see audiences fluctuate every quarter thanks to quirks of the measurement system, we can still see long term trends over longer periods.

AIM Magazine has put together figures for seven radio stations going back two years to give you a better idea of how the stations are doing.
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Executive at BBC Asian Network breathed a sigh of relief today after the latest figures showed a slight up-turn in listenership.

Audience numbers published by Rajar today showed that audience for the digital radio station increased from 405,000 to 421,000 over the last three months.

Other Asian radio stations also showed a rise in listeners.
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A big question mark hung over the fate of BBC Asian Network this week after it was criticised in an annual report by the BBC Trust for its falling audience figures.

A report in the Evening Standard last week by former Eastern Eye editor Amar Singh, now their media correspondent, suggested the station was up for a chop.
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From comfy cushions to the collapse of capitalism, documentary maker Navid Akhtar (pictured) examines the impact of Islamic design and values on the life of the Victorian designer, poet, craftsman and socialist radical, William Morris.
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Did you know that there was a time when Jewish women were among the leading ladies of Bollywood? No, neither did we.

But there was an era when Baghdadi Jewish families who had emigrated to India starred in Bollywood.
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A BBc team scooped the Radio Documentary prize this week at the prestigious One World Awards. Crossing Continents: Dharavi, by Mukul Devichand, John Murphy and Maria Balinska for Radio 4 was a special report about the audacious plan to demolish Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai.

Devichand first visited Dharavi in 2007, and returned a number of times before sleeping over in the slum with his producer John Murphy in March 2008. It was recorded well before Slumdog Millionarre brought the poverty of Mumbai’s slums to the big screen.

The reporter told AIM Magazine: “Like anyone who peered out of the car window at heartbreaking slums on childhood visits to South Asia, one part of me is hugely glad that India is now able to think about clearing the slums.”

“But that means it’s time for an urgent debate about what cities like Mumbai will look like in the future — and whether they’ll push the poor out into distant cramped tower blocks, storing up problems for the future. John and I were grateful to make a contribution to that discussion, and it’s wonderful to be recognised for it.”

The prestigious One World Media Awards – regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of factual broadcasting and journalism – will celebrate its 21st anniversary at this year’s ceremony on Monday 22nd June 2009.

Among nominees for the prestigious Broadcast Journalist of the Year award are Nadene Ghouri, which AIM previously profiled here, and the BBC’s Mukul Devichand.

The 12 award categories recognise excellence in coverage of the developing world.
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Susheel Kumar is part of an award-winning comedy series that could become the next Goodness Gracious Me. He is also acting in a new theatre production with a decidedly twisted storyline. He talks to AIM magazine about his journey through the industry.

You were recently in the BBC Radio show Fags, Mags and Bags – tell us a bit more

It’s a comedy that was written for Radio 4 and is set in a town just outside Glasgow in a cornershop. It focuses around Ramesh played by Sanjeev Kholi his sidekick Dave and his two sons Alok and Sanjay (Sanjay being the stroppy teenager and Alok, as Ramesh describes him ‘the self appointed Richard Branstons’). It’s not your typical Asian comedy, the humor really transfers well across the board. The show scooped the prize for Best Radio Comedy at the 2008 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards which was a great achievement.

It features some familiar faces and voices in Scottish comedy as well as a guest spot from Nina Wadia. We’ve got a 3rd series on the way later in the year, so expect more mayhem!
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A BBC scheme to develop a diverse talent pool of journalists ends next week.

The BBC Journalism Talent Pool is designed to speed the recruitment of journalists by finding and assessing talented people from a range of backgrounds in advance of vacancies.
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The BBC’s Tamil service, BBC Tamilosai, has launched a special 10-day morning news programme to cover the increasing interest and flow of news out of the situation in Sri Lanka. It will also concentrate on the Indian General Election.
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