Editing BBC Asian Network (section)

===Origins as a regional programme / station===
[[File:BBC Asian Network.svg|thumb|250px|BBC Asian Network logo (2012–2022)]]
[[File:BBC Asian Network Studio The Mailbox Birmingham 20041228.jpg|thumb|250px|BBC Asian Network studio at [[The Mailbox]] shopping centre, [[Birmingham]].]]
By 1949, the BBC had introduced their first weekly [[Bengali language]] programme, ''Anjuman'', through the efforts of [[Nazir Ahmed (filmmaker)|Nazir Ahmed]] and [[Nurul Momen]]. Momen also conducted a children's programme titled ''Kakoli''. The BBC was later joined by more [[Bengalis]] such as [[Fateh Lohani]] and [[Fazle Lohani]].<ref name=bpedia>{{cite Banglapedia|author=Hayat, Anupam|article=Ahmed, Nazir}}</ref> BBC television had also broadcast an Asian news programme, ''[[Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan]]'', since 1968 from its studios in Birmingham; this series followed a traditional news and current affairs format.

In 1976, [[BBC Radio Leicester]], responding to the growth of the size of the South Asian population and rising racial tension in [[Leicester]], introduced a daily community show called ''Six Fifteen'', aimed primarily at that community in the city. By 1977, CRE research showed that the programme regularly reached 67% of the South Asian community in Leicester. BBC Radio Leicester dominated the provision of Asian programming on BBC local radio and by 1990 was producing one third of the output.<ref>{{cite thesis|last1=McCarthy|first1=Liam|title=Dr.|url=https://doi.org/10.25392/leicester.data.11798622|website=Connecting with new Asian communities: BBC Local Radio 1967-1990|year=2020|publisher=University of Leicester|doi=10.25392/leicester.data.11798622|access-date=16 June 2021|type=thesis}}</ref> In 1989, [[BBC Radio WM|BBC WM]], the BBC radio station for the Midlands, followed Radio Leicester's lead and introduced a similar daily show as part of a new Midlands Asian Network.

On 30 October 1989, '''The Asian Network''' was launched on the [[medium wave]] transmitters of BBC WM and BBC Radio Leicester, with a combined output of 57 hours per week. This was extended to 86 hours a week in 1995 and on 4 November 1996 the station became a full-time service, on air for eighteen hours a day in Leicester and Birmingham, and was relaunched as the '''BBC Asian Network''' with programming also broadcast on the MW transmitters of stations with large Asian communities (with the exception of [[BBC Radio London|BBC GLR]] which was an [[FM broadcasting|FM]]-only station).