Save 6music

Two days ago BBC director general Mark Thompson, (herein, referred to as “Cameron’s (herein referred to as “Murdoch’s bitch”) bitch”, still with me? I’m not), as part of the corporation’s ‘Strategic review’, announced the proposed closure of the digital radio station 6music, but you probably already knew that.
Supposedly, some of 6music’s more “distinctive” programs may be transfer to other BBC radio stations, no doubt into ‘specialist’ 2am time slots.
I’m a relative newcomer to 6music, I only really discovered it last November, when I wasn’t particularly well, and it played no small part in keeping me sane when stuck in the house for day after day, it truly is a music lover’s radio station and caters for a wide range of tastes, from folk to funk to metal to dance, lashings of comedy, and in Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freak Zone’ a singular look at weird and wonderful stuff that wouldn’t otherwise get a look in.

6music, and in particular Lauren Laverne’s mid-morning show have now become such a part of my daily routine, that I feel slightly aggrieved if I miss it.

Roughly a fortnight prior to this, the BBC Trust published a report into Radio 2 and 6music, stating that the latter needed to increase it’s 695,000 strong weekly audience without an increase of it’s £9 million budget, there were rumours flying around before this report was published, that 6music may be chopped, but, for a few days, this seemed to suggest otherwise. Surely the Trust had some idea that Cameron’s Bitch was planning something, so why the false hope?

There simply are no other radio stations quite like 6music, no other station gives unsigned and underground bands nearly as much airplay, and loosing it would be a massive blow to not only the audience and staff, but these bands.

Radio’s 1 & 2 however cannot make such a claim, there are countless commercial stations the churn out the kind of drivel, spoken or sung, that these two do during the day, and as for Radio 1’s sister station 1xtra…christ…is this really necessary, Tim ‘my dad was a priest, but I’m super-fly’ Westwood even said, live on air:“I've been broadcasting to absolutely nobody for the last three hours. Didn't you see the figures? No one listens to Westwood in the afternoon. It's soul-destroying." Aight! 1xtra costs more to run than 6music, and has fewer listeners. Where’s the sense in that? BBC Three, which costs over £100 million a year, has produced very little in the way of worthy original content, with perhaps the exception of The Mighty Boosh (pictured above-which was a radio show first, so not original then, quiet Joe!) and Being Human. A quick look over this weeks listings for said channel brought up un-missable broadcasts such as ‘Snog, Marry, Avoid’, ‘Hotter than my Daughter’, ‘Dancing on Wheels’ and ‘Coming of Age’ which looks like ‘Two Pints of Lager…’ Jr. which, to be frank, is not really what the world needs!

True, 6music is by no means perfect; George Lamb is a first class douche bag who seems to know next to nothing about music. His interviewing style is hardly probing either, he asked Ray Davies from the Kinks whether he was bald, and what his favourite vowel was, understandably, Davies hung up on him
After an online campaign to get Lamb off the air, he was shifted across to a weekly show on Saturday mornings, a small victory, but a victory never the less, and one that perhaps gives the 6music audience a tiny glimmer of hope that it could be saved.

Since CB’s report was published, the Trust have indicated that they will take public opinion into consideration during the two and a bit month long consultation period, so please, if you have even a passing interest in independent and innovative music of any kind, go here, and tell the Trust why you think 6music should be saved (that is, if you do, if you don’t, go away please, they gone? Good), if you’ve never listened, I whole heartedly suggest you do,(especially on a Saturday, post-Lamb for some jollity with Richard Herring & Andrew Collings). There’s a group on facebook, shizz going down on Twitter, and a number of online petitions. Ask any likeminded colleagues, friends, family to do the same, if there’s enough of a groundswell of support, the Trust may just reverse the decision.

If not, as Phil Jupitus wrote in The Guardian last week, it would be “an affront to the memory of John Peel and a slap in face to thousands of licence-payers”.
Here’s hoping our faces remain resolutely unslapped.