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On 23 October 2008 BBC Radio Leicester's brand new programme for the Asian community in Leicester and Leicestershire will be broadcast for the first time.

It'll be broadcast every Thursday 19:00-21:00 and will be presented by Kamlesh Purohit.

Listen Again: 7 O'Clock Show - 23 October 2008

But don't panic if you missed the show you can listen again to it here!

Manish began his career with Kamlesh

Listen: Background to The 7 O'Clock Show

BBC Leicester's Kamlesh Purohit explores the background to The 7 O'Clock Show...

Kamlesh's Story

Kamlesh moved to Leicester from Kenya in the 1970s as a small child.

He studied at De Montfort University (then Leicester Polytechnic), and after graduation he began work as an engineer.

It was around this time that Kamlesh started to help out behind the scenes on BBC Radio Leicester's daily Asian programme – The 6 O'Clock Show.

Over the years he worked his way up the ranks and eventually became the show's presenter.

In 1996, the Asian programming strand broke away from its' parent station, BBC Radio Leicester, to form a new 24-hour radio station in its own right called BBC Asian Network.

These were pioneering days for British Asian radio broadcasting, and as a key member of the management team, Kamlesh played an important role.

He helped to establish new schedules as well as finding and nurturing new talent, such as Manish Bhasin, the Presenter of Football Focus, who started in radio answering phones on Kamlesh's programme!

Reliving 'the good old days'

Coming back to BBC Radio Leicester completes a very exciting journey for Kamlesh.

To this day, he gets stopped on the streets of Leicester by listeners who talk nostalgically about the early days of BBC Radio Leicester's Asian programming. Kamlesh says:

"To be able to relive 'the good old days' again through the new 7 O'Clock Show is going to be magical – I can't wait to get started."

Diwali lights on Belgrave Road

The 7 O'Clock Show

So what can we expect from the new show?

The 7 O'Clock Show will be an exciting mixture of music, news, sport, live events, entertainment and much more.

BBC Radio Leicester's Managing Editor, Kate Squire, says that BBC Radio Leicester caters for all audiences, but The 7 O'Clock Show will mean the station can focus on its Asian listeners:

"We hope that The 7 O'Clock Show will allow us to go a little bit more into depth into stories that affect around 40% of people living in Leicester, and of course play some fantastic music."

Listen to The 7 O'Clock Show on BBC Radio Leicester 104.9FM, DAB and Online from 19:00-21:00 every Thursday with Kamlesh Purohit.