Sunrise Radio, the AM station in Greater London serving the Asian community has requested to Ofcom for a change of format. When the station launched 15 years ago, Sunrise was the only full-time Asian sservice in London providing ‘something for everyone’. But since then there have been cultural changes within the Asian audience, as well as more Asian radio stations launched.
Sunrise would like to move restrictive parts of their format, including obligations to broadcast in other languages for 18 hours per week, and transfer them, unaltered, to their sister station Kismat Asian Talk Radio which has a similar coverage area but is aimed at the older, speech-oriented Asian listener.
The main points made by Sunrise Radio in its case for change can be summarised as follows:
? The character of service of neither station would change. The ?specialist? output fits more comfortably within the talk-based output of Kismat, aimed at an older audience, leaving Sunrise to cater for its more general audience
? The range of programmes would not be affected, because the output under debate would still be available to the same area, on the same wavelength, on a similar station
? Fair and effective competition would not be an issue because the competitive market would remain unchanged
? No specific research was undertaken because the programmes will remain available. However, feedback from the specific Asian sub-groups that would be affected by the changes suggests general support for the Sunrise Group and their endeavours with Asian broadcasting in the UK
Sunrise Radio?s rationale behind the request for change is available on the Ofcom website in PDF format.