Finding a New British Asian Sound on BBC Radio : The South Asian Diaspora in Britain and BBC Radio

This book explores the contrasting responses to the South Asian diaspora in Britain of BBC local radio and BBC network radio. It highlights the hidden history of how BBC local radio stations developed a schedule of five thousand hours a year of programmes targeted at South Asian communities in England. Local radio stations at the periphery of the BBC built deep and influential connections with marginalised Asian communities, creating the BBC Asian Network in 1989 and played an influential part in building local social cohesion. This contrasts with central BBC policy that reveals a management culture resistant to change and unable to embrace an increasingly diverse Britain - creating a problematic legacy for the BBC. Finding a New British Asian Sound brings new insights into current debates around policy and institutional racism at the BBC, where South Asian programming on local and network radio remains at risk of closure. Acknowledgements Abstract Contents Abbreviations List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Purpose of This Book My Positionality: And South Asian Contributors References Chapter 2: BBC Radio and the South Asian Diaspora ‘Doing as Little as Possible’: BBC Radio’s First Response to South Asian Immigration BBC Local Radio: From ‘Programmes for Immigrants’ to Social Cohesion The BBC and a New British Asian Identity Conclusion References Chapter 3: Failing the Diversity Test: The BBC and the Legacy of a Policy Vacuum An ‘Out of Touch’ BBC: A Legacy of Failed and Ignored Diversity Policies BBC Journalism: An Editorial ‘whiteness’ BBC Local Radio: A Creative but Policy-free Zone Conclusion References Chapter 4: Finding a New ‘British Asian Sound’ Youthquake? An Emerging Second Generation of British Asian Broadcasters ‘Doing the Splits’: Government Policy and Asian Programming. BBC Local Radio: Expansion and Building a Critical Mass of South Asian Talent Conclusion References Chapter 5: Making a British Asian Sound: The Pioneers of Asian Radio on the BBC Radio as a Core Part of Teenage Listening Getting into the BBC Welcome Here? Fitting in to the BBC Conclusion References Interviewees Chapter 6: Networking the British Asian Sound: The BBC Asian Network and BBC Local Radio How Did the ‘British Asian sound’ Come to Dominate the BBC Asian Network? Driving Change to the BBC Asian Network: The Flawed Pursuit of a Young British Asian Audience Where Should BBC Local Radio Fit in to the 2020s Ecology of National and Local Asian Services? Conclusion: A Way Forward for Asian Content from BBC Radio? References Appendix A: Hours of Weekly Asian Programming on BBC Local Radio, 1969–1994 Appendix B: Asian Programme Recordings from BBC Local Radio, 1977–1994 Index