Wednesday 03-03-2010
Words: Raj Kumar
The Sunrise Radio founder, Avtar Lit, said the Asian Network, whose audience has slumped 33% in the past five years, had been given a "bloody nose" by its commercial rivals.
He claimed the BBC had poorly managed the station, which costs £12.1m a year, and said most listeners "wouldn't give a toss" if it was taken off air.
Lit, chief executive of Sunrise Radio parent company the Litt Corporation, offered a withering assessment of the Asian Network, which launched on analogue in 1988 and as a digital station in 2002.
"They had a wonderful opportunity to connect with the Asian community and it has been rejected," said Lit.
"The BBC was never really serious about providing a service for the Asian community. It's a token service, they have ignored them for decades.
"The difficulty is I don't think anyone knows what they are doing there. They are all politically correct and not running it like a business. They are not living in the real world, they are not living in the Asian community.
"They think because it's the BBC, people will have an automatic allegiance to it. They have come up against commercial radio and got a bloody nose out of it. I don't think the Asian community would give a toss [if it closed down]. Some MPs might make a lot of noise about it."
The Litt Corporation also includes Punjabi Radio, Kismat Radio and Sunrise TV. Sunrise Radio, which broadcasts on analogue in London and on digital nationwide, is the number one Asian station in the country with an average weekly reach of 483,000.
Lit said Sunrise Radio cost around £3.5m a year. He said he was "absolutely amazed" at the Asian Network's £12.1m budget and criticised its "mediocre programmes" and "mediocre presenters".
"How do you spend £12m on a radio station when the entire commercial radio industry's budget [for Asian stations] including community stations up and down the country doesn't even touch £9m? I would be more than happy to programme the Asian Network for £3m a year.
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