Kismat FM - Ofcom Licensing

Section 105(A): Ability To Maintain Proposed Service
Kismat
Radio
1. OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF COMPANY WHICH WILL OPERATE THE LICENCE
(a) Board of Directors
The Kismat Radio board currently comprises six members, of which half are local to the licence area. Details are
as follows:
Avtar Lit
Chairman
Age
54
Occupation:
Chief Executive
Sunrise Group
Other Media Interests:
See Below
Other Directorships
Sunrise Radio Ltd;
London Media Company Ltd;
Yarr Radio Ltd;
Easy Radio London Ltd;
Club Concorde Ltd;
Hayes Gate House Ltd;
Asian Broadcasting Corporation Ltd;
Asia Broadcasting Corporation (Sri Lanka)
Universal Breweries Ltd (Mauritius);
Top FM Ltd (Mauritius).
Board of Directors
Avtar’s name is synonymous with Asian broadcasting worldwide. His depth
of broadcasting success and commercial innovation has won admiration in
both Western and Eastern circles and include an honorary doctorate
bestowed upon him by Thames Valley University.
Today’s successes have come from humble beginnings in 1980 when Avtar
first got a taste for journalism and community through his involvement at
Greenwich Cablevision. After a short break setting up an Asian station and
newspaper in California, he returned to the UK to campaign for the West
London radio licence from which Sunrise Radio was born.
In 1990 he assisted in saving Bradford City Radio and later enabled the
station to retain its independent status. Two years later he took 24 hour
Asian commercial broadcasting to Leicester and in 1993 won the licence to
expand Sunrise Radio London-wide. In 1994 Avtar successfully responded
to the Government of Mauritius’s invitation to compete for a licence to
broadcast to the Asian half of its population.
In 1997 he launched five new radio stations in Sri Lanka catering for the
country’s varying tastes. The high tech broadcasting headquarters in the
Island’s capital are housed in one of the most magnificent buildings in the
country.
Over the past 20 years Avtar’s contribution to Asian broadcasting is self
evident. His substantive support to fundraising causes both home and
abroad is also legendary. He has progressed to running the most successful
Asian radio station in the UK - Sunrise Radio (London) and a string of
DAB services. In addition, he has highly successful interests in Mauritius,
Sri Lanka and India and all of these services are top-rated in their class. In
particular, Avtar’s commitment and support for DAB is the most extensive
of any ethnic minority broadcaster in the UK in direct response to the
Radio Authority’s clearly stated ambitions for DAB properly to reflect
ethnic make-up in the country.
Section 105 (A) : Page 1