For so many years, I’ve wanted to have our own TV broadcasting studio but I couldn't find a mentor from my own community. Looking for one in our community was like looking for a needle in a haystack. That caused a lot of challenges but it also raised questions regarding where our community is today, and the question of my commitment. So, I had to learn everything myself.

From filming to editing, from graphic design to 3D and music production. It took a very long time. I knew what I wanted to achieve could costs hundreds of thousands of pounds but this changed as I persisted - 36 years of persistence. After much reading, testing, using diverse software, filming, music production, animation, moving from one software to another, and questions - the window opened. But all this started somewhere:

Whenever the city celebrated Black History Month, a question came to my mind. Our history whether Black history, British white History, Muslim History, Asian History, India History etc, are part of who, what, when and where a community is in life. It is identity to celebrate. It is history, period.

I was really surprised to see Black History being celebrated once a month and doing it with the thought that we can just hold a poetry night on Black History, a few speeches, posters and that’s it. Is that what Black History means? I also began to see a pattern within the media called TV or Webcast programmes that interview entrepreneurs to inspire, educate and share their knowledge. I saw not one black face. Not one black entrepreneur being interviewed to provide knowledge on how they succeeded, the challenges they faced or the solutions they found.

Now, this may seem negative, right? No. Actually, I saw it as an opportunity to get active and contacted them and said politely:

“Hi, great show but I would love you to see you interview black entrepreneurs too. It will expand your market and get you to gain more funding. I’ll even show you where.” And they replied with, “Great idea! Share with us some names of the people and we’ll contact them and come along. We’ll like to talk to you.”

No newspaper is sold to some ghost town or community or individual. No negative story and hype is sold to thin air. It is sold to readers. The readers, the viewers of any channel have power. And unfortunately, when newspapers and TV Channels speel nothing but hype, lies, the numbers only rise because people are watching and the people are buying. If a programme isn’t been watched and goes down in numbers, it is axed. If a newspaper isn’t selling it is either sold to someone who can do the job better, the highest bidder, or it goes bankrupt.

The saddest part of all came at a meeting in which I asked a crowd of black and ethnic minority communities this question:

“Who is studying Public Relations? Who is working in the Marketing world? Who is a real, true Journalist, working within the mainstream newspapers? Who is working within the TV Broadcast companies?”

I found not one hand was raised. Now do you understand the dilema we have today? This means, we are letting someone else decide for us. The higher the number, the more power it has. You don’t have your voice heard – you have NO voice at all. No voice, no say in such matters.

Well, I saw all these opportunities for change. I could make the same quality of any TV Broadcast Company and I mean, the big channels with less than £5,000. I’m talking about you staring at a screen and it looks like a million pounds studio.

What I learnt from this experience is this:
I had to be the change that I wanted to see in my life and in my community. I started saying, “I am the mosque. I am the community. I am the politician. I am the TV broadcast company and newspaper. I am the change I wanted to see in my life. It is my responsibility. To put it bluntly - I change what is within me and get the job done and God will do the rest.