article date: 01 December 2009

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From today, Panjab Radio, an iconic name in Asian broadcasting, is broadcasting nationally across Great Britain on DAB digital radio.

The service will consist of music, news and speech programming mainly in Panjabi and English. Music output includes a mix of modern and traditional Panjabi music. Other speech content includes lifestyle, entertainment and news/current affairs features. The station aims to be inclusive to all people in the UK for whom Panjabi language or music is important, and has programmes with general appeal to Panjabi speakers of all faiths.

“We’re a unique station that serves a unique audience,” said the station’s Managing Director, Surjit Ghuman “This is the biggest step for our radio station since its launch and we believe the time is right for us to launch across the UK. We’re grateful to those who’ve supported this initiative and to the thousands of individual listeners”.

Surjit added “It’s a significant expansion for Panjab Radio which has come a long way since its launch as a satellite station in September 2000, when it was only available on SKY. In November 2003 in London and West Yorkshire and November 2007 in the West Midlands Panjab Radio was launched on digital radio. Now Panjab Radio will be available to more than 90% of the population from Newcastle to Exeter and Southampton to Glasgow”.

Panjab Radio celebrated nine years on-air in September. It has been riding high after recently joining the official radio audience measuring body – RAJAR and outperforming other Panjabi stations.

Glyn Jones, Digital One’s Operations Director, said: “Like Premier Christian Radio and UCB UK, Panjab Radio relied on a fund-raising appeal to pay for the launch of the station. It’s interesting to see the growth of listener-supported stations, and the way they’re extending the range and choice of stations on air via digital radio. These are stations that neither a traditional commercial model nor the BBC have chosen to provide, but which listeners value so much that they’re prepared to help pay for them out of their own pockets. It’s a real achievement for the team at Panjab Radio to get the station on air across Britain”.

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