Ofcom announced the award of the radio licence to Asian Star Community Radio for Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead earlier this month.
The radio station is actively planning and preparing for its launch which is planned for the summer time this year with a grand celebration and opening.
Asian Star will be broadcasting from the heart of Slough, and is in the process of securing new studio and office premises. Asian Star will target local communities who reside in the above mentioned areas, with a target audience ranging from 25-55 year olds. The radio station boasts a programming content with a variety of features and programmes such as local community news, local topical issues, a what?s on guide, traffic and travel, children?s programmes, cultural event coverages, healthcare, immigration law, careers, small business education-banking/taxation/accountancy, radio presentation development courses, youth programmes along with a variety of great music of all genres originating from the UK?s Asian music scene and the Asian sub-continent.
The radio station boasts a state of the art technological studio with a newsroom and a production suite and offices location to be confirmed soon. Asian Star has already forged close links with Thames Valley Police, Creative Partnerships, Royal Berkshire Fire & Rescue, Slough Borough Council, Slough Observer, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, Slough Primary Health Care Trust, West Wing Arts Space, Slough Foundation Schools and community religious leaders with a view to extend an invitation to other faiths to be a part of the radio project.
The Station will broadcast 70:30 music to speech ratio and will broadcast in the following languages: predominantly English, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi & Bengali.
Asian Star will be broadcasting 24hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year, and is also planning to stream live globally on the web.
The aims and objectives of the radio station are to serve, entertain, educate and inform the community, and therefore Asian Star will be getting involved in many community events & functions throughout the year, all religious calendar dates appropriate to the stations ethos will be celebrated.
The station will offer educational broadcasting courses which will be run by professional broadcasters with a wealth of radio industry experience. There will also be training programmes for experienced presenters to adapt them for 21st century radio, teaching them the benefits of the new age of DAB radio.
Digital broadcasting will be explained to ensure local people who express an interest in Asian Star and radio in general, whether from a presentation prospective or as a listener, Asian Star will be there to assist.
The station will have a very strict policy on type of broadcasters who will present shows and will be very particular in their strategy to capture listeners, and so the programming output of Asian Star will be very carefully programmed and monitored by experienced programmers.
The radio station directors Ray Siddique and Pritam Chaggar, are absolutely thrilled and overwhelmed with the announcement and have said ?that this has been a life long ambition to get behind a radio station which we can steer, both our backgrounds extend back into commercial and BBC radio stations?, Ray a.k.a. Ray C former director and Head of Asian Programmes of formerly owned UKRD Group radio station Star 106.6FM adds “this station will stand out from the rest, as Pritam and I have a wealth of knowledge and understanding both from commercial, & BBC radio and most importantly of Asian broadcasting. We will ensure this radio station is appealing not only to the Asian community but also for the non Asian listeners by having a certain amount of programmes presented in English with a sizeable amount of community information for everyone to benefit from”, and continues to say “local listeners will be able to enjoy and benefit greatly from the information that will be broadcast on the station”. Ray is also event director of Slough?s biggest family festival entitled the ‘Slough Mela’.