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BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially those between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has production centres at The Mailbox in Birmingham and formerly the Broadcasting House in London.
The station broadcasts mainly in English, but has retained Sunday evening shows in South Asian languages. Despite the name, Asian Network covers only the Indian subcontinent, with the rest of the continent – such as Japan and China – not covered by the station.
The station's output consists largely of music and talk programmes. On Fridays at 3:00 pm, the station broadcasts The Official Asian Music Chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company and based on sales and streams across a seven-day period.
According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 542,000 with a listening share of 0.2% as of March 2024.[better source needed]
By 1949, the BBC had introduced their first weekly Bengali language programme, Anjuman, through the efforts of Nazir Ahmed and Nurul Momen. Momen also conducted a children's programme titled Kakoli. The BBC was later joined by more Bengalis such as Fateh Lohani and Fazle Lohani. BBC television had also broadcast an Asian news programme, Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan, since 1968 from its studios in Birmingham; this series followed a traditional news and current affairs format.
In 1976, BBC Radio Leicester, responding to the growth of the size of the South Asian population and rising racial tension in Leicester, introduced a daily community show called Six Fifteen, aimed primarily at that community in the city. By 1977, CRE research showed that the programme regularly reached 67% of the South Asian community in Leicester. BBC Radio Leicester dominated the provision of Asian programming on BBC local radio and by 1990 was producing one third of the output. In 1989, BBC WM, the BBC radio station for the Midlands, followed Radio Leicester's lead and introduced a similar daily show as part of a new Midlands Asian Network.
On 30 October 1989, The Asian Network was launched on the medium wave transmitters of BBC WM and BBC Radio Leicester, with a combined output of 57 hours per week. This was extended to 86 hours a week in 1995 and on 4 November 1996 the station became a full-time service, on air for eighteen hours a day in Leicester and Birmingham, and was relaunched as the BBC Asian Network with programming also broadcast on the MW transmitters of stations with large Asian communities (with the exception of BBC GLR which was an FM-only station).
In November 1999, as part of the addition of a suite of BBC and commercial radio services to the Sky Digital satellite television platform, BBC Asian Network was made available to Sky viewers alongside BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Ulster.
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BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially those between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has production centres at The Mailbox in Birmingham and formerly the Broadcasting House in London.
The station broadcasts mainly in English, but has retained Sunday evening shows in South Asian languages. Despite the name, Asian Network covers only the Indian subcontinent, with the rest of the continent – such as Japan and China – not covered by the station.
The station's output consists largely of music and talk programmes. On Fridays at 3:00 pm, the station broadcasts The Official Asian Music Chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company and based on sales and streams across a seven-day period.
According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 542,000 with a listening share of 0.2% as of March 2024.[better source needed]
By 1949, the BBC had introduced their first weekly Bengali language programme, Anjuman, through the efforts of Nazir Ahmed and Nurul Momen. Momen also conducted a children's programme titled Kakoli. The BBC was later joined by more Bengalis such as Fateh Lohani and Fazle Lohani. BBC television had also broadcast an Asian news programme, Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan, since 1968 from its studios in Birmingham; this series followed a traditional news and current affairs format.
In 1976, BBC Radio Leicester, responding to the growth of the size of the South Asian population and rising racial tension in Leicester, introduced a daily community show called Six Fifteen, aimed primarily at that community in the city. By 1977, CRE research showed that the programme regularly reached 67% of the South Asian community in Leicester. BBC Radio Leicester dominated the provision of Asian programming on BBC local radio and by 1990 was producing one third of the output. In 1989, BBC WM, the BBC radio station for the Midlands, followed Radio Leicester's lead and introduced a similar daily show as part of a new Midlands Asian Network.
On 30 October 1989, The Asian Network was launched on the medium wave transmitters of BBC WM and BBC Radio Leicester, with a combined output of 57 hours per week. This was extended to 86 hours a week in 1995 and on 4 November 1996 the station became a full-time service, on air for eighteen hours a day in Leicester and Birmingham, and was relaunched as the BBC Asian Network with programming also broadcast on the MW transmitters of stations with large Asian communities (with the exception of BBC GLR which was an FM-only station).
In November 1999, as part of the addition of a suite of BBC and commercial radio services to the Sky Digital satellite television platform, BBC Asian Network was made available to Sky viewers alongside BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Ulster.