Shilpa Shetty: Let the music play

London, March 6: Shilpa Shetty has signed a letter published in the Guardian newspaper today urging the BBC to reconsider its decision to close its Asian Network, a national digital radio station with a high bhangra and Bollywood content.

In the letter, “BBC Asian Network is a vital platform”, the actress has been joined by more than 100 people, mostly actors, DJs and cultural activists, and also a few politicians who say they have written “to express our profound shock at the BBC director-general Mark Thompson’s proposals to close down the BBC Asian Network as a national station”.

The BBC intends to shut the network, perhaps by the end of next year, because of a 20 per cent decline in its audience and also because it feels the cost, £12.1 million in 2008-2009, is simply too high.

Shilpa is joined by, among others, Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, judge Mota Singh, boxer Amir Khan, Lord Kamlesh Patel, a peer, MP Khalid Mahmood and cricketer Vikram Solanki, who argue that “the Asian Network is a national platform for musicians, Asian culture in general, news, debate and documentaries”.

Critics, however, say the network’s output lacks variety and is of questionable quality, although it is accepted that the BBC could do much more to meet the requirements of the UK’s Asian population.

The problem now is that saving the network has turned into almost a loyalty test for some Asians even though it is almost certain that a significant proportion of those who have signed today’s letter are unfamiliar with the Asian Network’s output. Although some of the signatories are white union officials, the battle has assumed an “us versus them” character with the BBC under attack for allegedly being racist.

The network “provides a key platform for the national Asian community and offers an outlet to British Asian talent, which is demonstrably underrepresented in the more mainstream BBC,” the letters says. “This would all be tragically lost if these proposals are agreed.”

It adds: “We urge the BBC Trust to reconsider this proposal and stop the closure of a valued station…. This is a vital part of what the BBC offers in the name of public service broadcasting. As loyal licence-fee payers, we trust we will not be let down.”A programme on BBC Radio 4 today was an example of the kind of item conspicuous by its absence on Asian Network — a discussion on the presence of Jews in India for the past 2,000 years. Last week, Radio 4 broadcast a three-part series, The New Global Indians, the sort of programme the Asian Network should have produced but failed to do.

Today’s menu on Asian Network provides some understanding of how the station, in seeking to be multi-religious, has inadvertently or otherwise highlighted separate religious identities in the UK: 04:00–05:00 Devotional Sounds: Sikh; 05:00–06:00 Devotional Sounds: Hindu; 06:00–07:00 Devotional Sounds: Islam. It is unclear why Sikhs have to be up by 4am and Hindus by 5am while Muslims are allowed a lie in until 6am, the time when most decent English folk are sleeping off their Friday night hangovers.

In seeking to appeal to “Asian youth”, aged between 15 and 18 years, the interests of others appear to have been sacrificed. There is little evidence in the station’s list of programmes today, at least, of “Asian culture in general, news, debate and documentaries” that the signatories are keen to save.

Today, from 9am to 12 noon, it’s Love Bollywood, featuring “Bollywood music, star interviews and reviews with Raj and Pablo”.

From noon to 2pm, listeners are offered Asian Network Chart, in which “Jas Rao counts down the top 20 Bollywood, bhangra and Desi tracks”.

From 2pm to 5pm, Murtz is on hand to bring “your Bollywood, bhangra, hip hop and RnB requests with Murtz”.

And from 5pm to 8pm, the Punjabi Hit Squad delves into “the biggest hip hop, Bollywood and bhangra anthems with Dee and Rav”.

And so it goes on and on in similar vein — the kind of sound a taxi driver might have on as background in the rush hour in some part of India.

It is unlikely that either Shilpa or Liberal peer Lord Dholakia, who has also lent his name to today’s petition, will be up from 2am to 4am to enjoy Pathaan’s Musical Rickshaw as he entertains listeners with “Asian Chill, Global Dance Beats & Outernational Electronica with Pathaan”.

The letter in the Guardian has elicited a wide range of responses which are, if anything, more interesting than anything put out on Asian Network.

One view is: “The Asian Network might have been needed when it first started but it’s a dead duck now…. I have never listened to the Asian Network, I don’t know anyone in my age group 30-35 who has listened to the Asian Network so why should my licence money go to fund a bunch of ageing untalented Asian DJs and presenters who, if it weren’t for the network, would be out of job as I doubt any commercial Asian station would hire them. The Asian listenership is leaving in droves and no amount of British Asian ‘stars’ lending their support for network will save it.”

Another more restrained and valuable contribution, bearing the kind of message that BBC bosses will probably take to heart, is: “An ill run station is not evidence that it is not needed. It is merely evidence that it is ill run.”