Panjab Radio, an iconic name in Asian broadcasting, has been launched nationally across Great Britain on DAB digital radio.

The news comes as Chaman Lal Chaman the veteran broadcaster from Panjab Radio was awarded the prestigious Media and Arts Achievement Award at a glittering ceremony at the Wembley Stadium this month.

The 9th Annual Achievers Award were presented by Baroness Shruti Vadera and attended by over 1000 high-profile guests.

Panjab Radio’s DAB 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 and 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”.

Glyn Jones, Digital One’s Operations Director, said: “The UK radio industry has had a poor record of making sure its stations reach out to all audiences, and are inclusive of all Britain’s communities. The arrival of the first Panjabi radio station on the national airwaves is long overdue. Congratulations to the team at Panjab Radio for raising the money and getting the station on air across Britain”.

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.