Houston-area Asians will soon have a radio station 24 hours a day.

On March 1, Hum Tum City Radio will debut on KQUE 1230 AM, which currently plays international programming from more than 15 nationalities.

KQUE , owned by California-based Entravision Communications Corp., will be under the management of Rehan Siddiqi, CEO of Asia Vision, a locally owned broadcast company providing programming to the area's Asian communities.

Hum Tum -- Indian for "togetherness" -- is an entertainment-based radio format including Top 40 music countdowns, celebrity interviews and talk show programs featuring local Asian business leaders.

Weekday programming will be broadcast in Urdu and Hindi, the dominant languages of Pakistan and India, while the weekends will focus on regional programs in Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil and Malayalam.

The station will also feature continuous coverage of local news, weather and sports as well as national news from CNN.

"Our community is growing and so are the needs of the community members," says Siddiqi .

Hum Tum will be going up against an established line-up of Asian-focused shows on stations including KTEK 1110 AM, KCHN 1050 AM, KPFT 90.1 FM and 1480 AM. - Christine Hall


5/22/02) Asian-Formatted Station KXEB Hires Management.

US Asian Broadcasting, in its first initiative to operate Asian-formatted radio stations, has hired Rehan Siddiqi as director of operations and Sandhya Sarma as director of programming for KXEB 910 AM in Dallas .

US Asian Broadcasting, headquartered in Dallas , also owns KBIS 1150 AM in Dallas .

Siddiqi began his radio career in Houston at age 16, starting a radio program called Rhythm 2000. Since January 2001, he has been in Dallas , launching a 24/7 radio format called Desi Masala, which he created to cater to needs of the local Indian/Pakistani community.

In radio production since 1997, Sarma joined Desi Masala in August 2001, managing daily operations as well as hosting her own program, Sab Chalta Hai ("Everything Goes").