Kismat FM - Ofcom Licensing

Section 105(B & C): Catering For Tastes & Broadening Audience Choice
Kismat
Radio
Broadcast Output
We are naturally well aware of Asian Sound and have followed it with interest since it began broadcasting.
However, in order to provide a more quantifiable basis for examination if the station's programme output, we
arranged for a recording to be made of its daytime output between 06h and 19h on January 6th 2005. Output was
then manually transcribed into a searchable spreadsheet, with broadcast items identified and coded according to
their type (news, music, speech, commercials, etc) and sub-type (news focus, music genre, etc). A file containing
the output transcript and coding is submitted with this Application. The original output recording can be supplied
on request. Our examination showed:
One hour of religious music and readings was broadcast between 06.00 - 07.00, with content exclusively
Naats and Quaranic recitals, therefore aimed mostly at Muslim listeners.
The great majority of music played was Bhangra and Punjabi tracks. Excluding religious items, 61% of tracks
were Bhangra, 17% Punjabi, 7% Remixes (Bhangra) and just 1% Ghazals. No examples of other types were
logged during the sample day, despite the broad list in the station's format.
Music was identified according to three era categories: recent titles since 2000, older songs from 1980-2000
and Gold songs from 1950-1980. Over two-thirds of the music played comprised recent tracks from the last
four years, with the remainder from the previous 20 years. No Gold songs were played.
News was predominantly national (38% of items) and international (32%). Local news stories (17%) and
regional items (13%) totalled 30% of news output.
Other than on-going news about the tsunami disaster, there was no news logged that related to other Asian
communities or countries.
Asian Sound provides a valuable service, but does not cover the needs of a majority of Asians in Manchester.
Kismat will provide a service that is clearly different from and complementary to that of Asian Sound.
KISMAT DIFFERENCE
Kismat is a service for adult Asians, wholly different from all of the existing mainstream stations that largely
overlap with each other in terms of music output, demographic appeal or indeed both.
Kismat is aimed at older Asian listeners over 35.
Kismat is a speech-based service, with over half of daytime output devoted to news, information and speech
during daytime and at least a third at other times.
Kismat's speech output will be accompanied by a mix of music almost entirely different from that effectively
played by Asian Sound: Ghazals, Qawalis, Asian Gold & Hits, Asian Folk and religious music.
Kismat is designed exclusively for listeners in the Manchester area.
Broadening Audience Choice
Kismat will deliver real choice in the Manchester market
Section 105 (B & C) : Page 12