Kismat Radio set to increase regional output

Sunrise Radio Group’s adult contemporary station, Kismat Radio is set for a programming facelift and will be repositioned as a multilingual Asian station.

According to BizAsia sources, Kismat Radio will reduce the number of hours it currently dedicates to Hindi and English speaking shows and increase regional language output hours. This will not only attract new listeners from niche communities but also differentiate it further from flagship station, Sunrise Radio.

Jobs are currently being advertised by the broadcaster for the station’s new four-hour Gujarati block, which will be known as Radio Gujarat and will be slotted between midday and 16:00 everyday. The station is looking for a station manager and sales executives for the new Gujarati strand.

There has also been talk of adding similar hours to other Asian groups including Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali but details are currently sketchy at the time of filing this article.

Kismat Radio and Sunrise Radio had both previously phased out language shows, so the u-turn to bring back such shows and that too in a big way with four-hour strands seems like a decision not to have been taken lightly. The changes are expected to be rolled out in next couple of months.

Kismat Radio broadcasts on 1035AM in Greater London, DAB digital radio, Sky Digital and online.