Nikita Lalwani’s multiple award nominated debut novel Gifted has been turned into a drama for BBC Radio 4. The drama serial will broadcast in the mornings next week.

Its cast will include Archie Panjabi, Sadia Ghaffar, Nina Wadia and Sagar Arya.
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BBC Asian Network’s publicist Dina Rana has moved on to the corporation’s Future Media team, to work on projects such as BBC iPlayer. Her last day with Asian Network will be Friday May 16th.

Her position will be filled by Andrew Bate, who previously handled publicity for Asian Network as well as Radio Five Live.

BBC Asian Network saw a massive jump in listeners over the last three months, figures released by the industry body Rajar showed this week.

In contrast Sunrise Radio, Kismat and Club Asia radio did not do so well.
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A new weekend schedule at Asian Network will launch from 17th May, the radio station announced this week, with the creation of two new shows.
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Former religious radical Shiraz Maher spent his student days campaigning for an Islamic state in which execution for leaving Islam would be written into the constitution. Now Shiraz is calling for moderation and greater Muslim integration into British life, a stance which has meant he himself is now labelled an apostate by some Muslim extremists.

In a Radio 4 documentary to be broadcast on 17th April, he will ask if people can stop being Muslim. He speaks to ex-Muslims about the problems they have faced which include violence, alienation from family and condemnation from their communities.

Shiraz also speaks to experts on Islamic law in an attempt to find out whether the death penalty is really justified by the Qu’ran and the example of the Prophet Muhammad, or whether Muslim attitudes to apostasy are more indicative of the them and us mentality fostered by some religious leaders.
Radio 4 - 17th April at 8pm.
It will be available to listen on the Radio 4 website after broadcast.

The West Midlands saw a new digital radio station launch this week aimed at the region’s British Asian market. AsianFx, sister-station to the popular London based Panjab Radio, will compete directly with BBC Asian Network for an audience.

The station was officially launched last week and will feature former Club Asian presenter Veena V on breakfast. Managing director Surjit Singh Ghuman said: “Most radio stations are language or music specific, the needs of British born Asians seemed to be ignored, so creating a platform for these cultures to unite seemed the right thing to do.”

AsianFx will broadcast on DAB Digital Radio and online www.asianfx.co.uk
Contact: info@asianfx.co.uk / 020 8848 8877
(pictured: Breakfast and Drivetime presenters at launch event)

The BBC Asian Network has been nominated for three awards at the prestigious Sony Radio Academy awards, it was revealed today.

Also up for nomination was Islamophonic, the Guardian newspaper’s monthly podcast on Muslim issues, produced by its religious affairs correspondent Riazat Butt.

The show initially started as a weekly project but has since been scaled down to a monthly podcast as Riazat took on more responsibilities at the Guardian.

BBC Asian Network has been nominated in the Digital Station of the Year category. Its Asian Nation project has been nominated for a Community Award and its documentary on ‘Britain’s Missing Girls’ is up for a New Feature Award.

The Sony Radio Academy awards will take place on May 12 in central London.

East London based Club Asia radio is losing one of its founding directors - John Ogden - for a senior post at another London station. He will take up the post of station manager at Spectrum Radio, which broadcasts in several languages for a multicultural audience.

Mr Ogden’s loss will come as a serious blow to the station because he has been widely credited within the industry to ensuring Club Asia remained a tightly run ship. He had been with the station’s founders - sisters Humerah Khan and Sumerah Ahmad - from the start. He previously worked under Mohammed Al Fayed running London’s Liberty Radio and has held senior positions in the BBC and commercial radio.
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“It was like hearing someone being tortured. She was not like a human being: she could only think about the pain. A few million people in India go through that agony. At least 2 million people with cancer and many millions with other diseases who simple suffer and suffer, and their whole family suffers with them, until death eventually relieves them of the misery. Some people commit suicide because of the pain, sometimes people come and beg please kill my husband or my mother or my son, I can’t bear to see this. I think it’s dreadful what people have to go through which converts them from human beings to some sort of animals.” - Dr M.R. Rajagopal Palliative Care physician, Trivandrum

Producer Mukti Jain Campion investigates why, despite producing most of the world’s medical morphine, India’s own people have virtually no access to it and how a hospice in Shrewsbury is helping pioneers of the Indian palliative care movement to overcome the ignorance that surrounds this vital pain relieving-drug.
BBC Radio 4, Monday March 3rd 2008 at 9pm and online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 for seven days after broadcast

The BBC announced today that Adrian Van Klaveren will be appointed controller of BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra. He is currently deputy director of news and controller for News Production.

His predecessor, Bob Shennan, was also controller for BBC Asian Network. But the station announced today that Van Klaveren will not take responsibility for Asian Network. Andy Parfitt, controller of Radio 1, 1Xtra and BBC Switch, will remain head of Asian Network - a role he has overseen since December.

BBC presenter Shazia Khan explores the subject of sexuality in the Islamic world, with a BBC World Service programme looking at how the role of modesty in Islamic culture squares with the pressures of sexual imagery on the lives of young, unmarried Muslims. She also explores the role sex plays in Islamic life – how it is celebrated within, but restricted outside, marriage.
Heart & Soul – Sex And The Islamic World
Sunday 17/24 February
Transmission times
Once aired, you an listen again from here.

Sonia Deol, a flagship presenter at BBC Asian Network, will no longer front the digital radio station’s Breakfast Show. A statement issued by Asian Network today said that the decision had been “mutually agreed” between the two.

“Sonia and the station are exploring different opportunities with the Asian Network and we will let you know about these once they are agreed. She is also involved in other TV projects and has recently presented The Big Questions on BBC 1.”

“Jas Rao will continue to present the breakfast show for the next six months and a decision on a permanent replacement will be decided once the new Controller is in place.”

Sonia had been absent from the show since December when she went on a “three week holiday”, and her continued disappearance had prompted speculation within the industry that she may not come back. Some loyal listeners even started a group on Facebook to ask if she was coming back and expressing their concerns.

Among a slew of new signings dubbed: In New DJs We Trust, BBC Radio 1 has given a slot to DJs Nerm and D-Code to present a new Drum n Bass music show. They will be last in a run of four back-to-back shows broadcasting Thursday nights/Friday mornings from 2am to 4am. The next re-shuffle of the slots will be in July 2008.

Nerm & D-Code said “Being signed to In New DJs We Trust feels like we’ve lost our virginity all over again (and no, not with each other) - just a massive mix of emotions, ecstatically happy but a little nervous, relieved but still excited, and just generally looking forward to what lies ahead! Being on Radio 1 alongside the best DJs in the world is an honour. We’ve got loads of ideas of how we want to shape the show, but if you asked us to sum it up in a few words ‘Glitter-Stepping, Punk-Stepping, Mashup Drum & Bass and Exclusive Dubplates’ spring to mind!”

Both are usually part of the Shiva Sound System collective.

BBC Asian Network has signed new presenting talents: Kan-D-Man and DJ Limelight to their weekly Saturday night music show ‘Mic Check’. The new show, which started on Saturday 19th January from 10pm - Midnight, is dedicated to providing a platform for the best in new Asian street music - from Hip-Hop to R’n'B, Grime to Dubstep.

Both emerged from the East London-based Asian Hip-Hop collective ‘Chronicle Entertainment’. The duo first caught the attention of Asian Network in 2006 with the lyrical dexterity displayed on ‘Raw Jaw’ - a weekly MC-clash on ‘Friction’, presented by Bobby Friction.

BBC Asian Network has signed up its latest recruit Jas Rao to take Nihal’s place on Fridays for the late morning phone-in show (9am - 12pm). Nihal, who will present the morning breakfast show on Radio 1 on weekends, recently moved to presenting his show only four days a week.

The new Friday format will also take a fresh look towards the weekend with a keen focus on sport and entertainment.

The Boston Globe newspaper features a story on AIM magazine’s very own Komal Trivedi, who helped launch this magazine all those years ago. Komal presents an early Thursday morning show on Boston College’s WZBC radio station.

Trivedi also enjoys showcasing the work of her contemporaries, including Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney, who pioneered Asian Underground. The British Asian artists helped create the genre by spicing up classical South Asian beats with modern dance music, heavy on electronics.

Asian Underground burst into the British mainstream in the 1990s, but Trivedi says that when she moved to the Boston area three years ago, this type of music was difficult to find, especially on the radio.

Trivedi was eager to fill the void, so a colleague at WGBH, where Trivedi is an executive assistant, suggested that she approach the Boston College station, where the colleague worked as a DJ in his spare time. The colleague showed Trivedi the ropes at WZBC, and just over a year ago “Bricklane Beats” was born.

Read the whole feature.

London based Panjab Radio has signed contracts with MXR digital to be a service provider on their West Midlands multiplex and will begin broadcasting on 1st November on digital radio in the region. This is the third multiplex Panjab Radio will broadcast from.

Surjit Singh Ghuman Managing Director of Panjab Radio said: “My four years of hard work and determination to get on to West Midlands on DAB has finally paid off and feels like a dream coming true, but in reality the very hard task of getting the message to the Panjabi community will start now and our listeners will be over the moon as they will not be confined to a TV and instead listen to us on DAB digital radio any where in the home, work or whilst on the move.”

West London based Panjab Radio is celebrating its 7th year on air this Sunday on 2nd September, at their studios in Hayes. The station will be broadcasting from a host of famous Panjabi singers.

Managing director Surjit Singh Ghuman says: “Celebrating our birthday in signature Panjab Radio style is what we are known for. I honestly don’t think any other radio station provides for the community like we do and this is what Panjab Radio is about.”

Every Mondays and Thursdays, 12-1pm, producer and presenter Shivani Mair brings listeners the Creative Careers Surgery, aimed at young people looking to get into the media industry.

The radio show aims to empower young people into thinking realistically about careers in the creative industries. Industry professionals and celebrities are invited to share their careers stories and give useful and effective industry tips. Interviews line up include MTV presenter Tim Kash, Artist Russell Hatton, Radio presenter Sonia Deol, Mac make up Artist Nadin Reed, Actor Kabir Bedi and more.
On 101.8 WCR FM & WCRfm.com

DJ Neev is being given a new slot on London’s Kiss 100 station where she can now be heard every weekday 12-3pm. The young, brassy and confident presenter has been part of the Kiss 100 family since 2004, not only presenting but also producing and doing voice-overs. After a recent stint of presenting the daily 3-6am slot on Kiss, which she describes as her ‘dream station’, Neev says she is “delighted” to be the new host of the lunchtime slot.

Andy Roberts, Group Programme Director at Kiss, said “Neev has done great work on building Kiss’s early morning audience over the last few months and now I feel its time for her to step up and host Kiss London’s new lunchtime show.”
www.neev.co.uk

After the success of last summer’s radio show ‘Tigerstyle Presents…’ series on BBC Radio Scotland, the station has launched a brand new music strand playing new Asian urban music starting 3rd July.

Upcoming presenter Ravi Sagoo has been signed on to take the helm and anchor the series in its second outing having produced last year’s series. Ravi was previously one of the winning finalists of the BBC’s New Talent Radio Presenter Search 2005/06, after which he was signed to pilot the Chart Show on BBC Asian Network. Scottish Bhangra production duo Tigerstyle will join Sagoo as his weekly guest contributors / session artists.
Broadcast 3rd of July to 7th of August; Tuesday nights 8-10pm, repeated Sundays 6-8pm.

On June 16th BBC Asian Network will launch a flagship Bollywood show called Love Bollywood. Passionate and irreverent in style, the four-hour show every Saturday will focus on the latest Bollywood releases and star interviews. Another four-hour show on Sunday will provide industry hits - classic and new - that shape the world’s biggest film industry.

Sheetal Parmar, the show’s producer says of the new show, “Love Bollywood is an in depth look at Bollywood films, the stars and the industry, but for the first time, it’ll be predominantly about the audience and their experience of it. Many British Asians have been brought up with Bollywood and it’s a part of their cultural make up whether they like it or not! It’s ambitious and bold, and very exciting to be able to produce something like this.”

Bollywood aficionados Raj& Pablo will be presenting on Saturday, whilst Asian Network and Zee TV’s Murtz will present on Sunday with Rajini Vaidynathan, from Radio 1.

Rajini says: “People might think it’s a bit odd me doing this with a background from News, but anyone who knows me will know I’m mad about Bollywood, just like most British Asians who’ve been brought up on a diet of Bollywood films. I’m really happy to be involved with something so different, and to be able to indulge in a guilty pleasure!”

Akaash Bhatia is a rising star of British boxing and Britain’s only professional Sikh fighter. Writer and broadcaster Munira Mirza follows his progress as he prepares for his next big fight and explores the changing ethnic face of boxing in Britain.

On Monday 14th May at 11am - 11:30am on BBC Radio 4. Listen after here.

Some upcoming television and radio programmes of interest

Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal 1-10
Ten-part language series teaching basic spoken Hindi and Urdu for beginners. The course is ideal for all who work with the Asian community in Britain.
Time: 2am - 6am; Tuesday 15th May on BBC 2

A Family in Lahore
The Khawaja family represents a growing number of successful professional Pakistani families, living in the suburb of Lahore with servants, and children at private school. The programme interlinks their day with a look at the busy and historic city of Lahore.
Time: 10:50am to 11:10am; Tuesday 15th May on BBC 2

Dispatches: Afghanistan Unveiled
Five years ago, Dispatches revealed the plight of women living under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Beneath the Veil uncovered evidence of women being denied employment, education and any kind of freedom, imprisoned in their own homes. In this film, journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy returns to Afghanistan to find out how life has changed for women in the five years since the invasion by America and its allies and to investigate whether women have been “liberated” as President Bush has claimed.
Time: 9pm - 10pm; Thursday 17th May on Channel 4

Poppy Seeds
By Rachel McGill. An aid worker in Afghanistan decides that the fight to contain the opium trade is not working and that a fresh approach is needed. She starts buying opium direct from the farmers, ensuring not only that they obtain a fair price for their crop but also that the product is not bought by drug cartels. Directed by Graham Frost.
Time: 2:15pm to 3pm; Friday 18th May on BBC Radio Four

The Bedouin Of Israel
The ancient culture of the Bedouin Arabs of Israel is rooted in a life on the plains of the Negev Desert. These proud people have become Israel’s new underclass. As Jon Leyne reports, the Bedouin have become the poorest of the Jewish state.
Time: 9:30pm - 10pm; Saturday 19th May on BBC News 24

Have you dreamed of being a BBC journalist but thought “the BBC’s not for people like me?” Do you believe you have what it takes to write the news fast, fairly and accurately? Do you think you have the creative flair to make great radio?

BBC Radio News is offering 12-month training contracts to two aspiring broadcast journalists. myChance is designed to help us find talented and creative people who might have been put off the idea of a career as a broadcast journalist because of the costs involved. To seize your chance of a training contract with BBC Radio News, please go to www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/myChance