BBC 6 Music may be axed?

So it's true, then

HERE

Does anyone know where Mark Thompson lives, so I can go round his house and pummel him around the head with a baseball bat?

What a pack of utter, utter b*****ds.
And we have to pay a licence fee to keep these people in a job.

Via Chris Addison on Twitter:

"The 6Music decision has to be upheld by the BBC Trust. Not over yet. Email them. Pass it on. trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk"

Let's get writing, people

Personally I'm pleased. I think Lauren Laverne is a waste of space, and there should be more output like Snog Marry Avoid...

Sorry, I think the bland, homogenised BBC viewer/listener that Mark Thompson wants us all to become started to manifest itself.

It's black armband day at our gaff. Why can't they cull some of the costly vapid mainstream egomania on R1 for starters, instead of killing off 6? The Beeb's unwieldy 'management' has long been a joke, but this is just pillage for political brownie points.

Can you hear the low rumble from six feet under as Lord Reith gears up to 200 RPM?

Edit: Beeb-o-Gram: Budget explained.

Mr Woman wrote:

So it's true, then

HERE

Does anyone know where Mark Thompson lives, so I can go round his house and pummel him around the head with a baseball bat?

What a pack of utter, utter b*****ds.
And we have to pay a licence fee to keep these people in a job.

Couldn't agree more mate.

My audio pleasures have been hit with a hammer in the past 18 months, first The Revolution based in Oldham was turned into another mainstream type garbage station and now my delightful 6Music.

What a disgrace !

Disgusted, Bury.

Just heard Thompson on 6 Music wittering on about how it doesn't have enough listeners and how if it had too many listeners it'd be competing with commercial stations (which ones? Surely not XFM or even NME Radio?) and blah blah blah.

Why does he think Radios 1 and 2 have so many listeners? Because of Chris Moyles' shining wit or Steve Wright's stunningly original show format that hasn't changed since about 1984? Nope, because they're analogue stations. Most people listen to analogue radios, in their cars and in their workplaces at least.

Living outside London and not being a fan of classical music or speech radio I currently have a choice between Radio 1, Radio 2, BBC Radio Kent (which is like Radio 2 but with local news) or a couple of local commercial stations for Kent and Sussex which I think are both Heart FM now and whatever they're called have been playing wall-to-wall Robbie Williams non-stop for the past ten years. (Or silence, as Mrs Spoons managed to break the car CD player within a month )

So what the fuck else am I supposed to listen to? I get in the car and I put Radio 1 on until they play Scouting For Girls, at which point I put Radio 2 on until they play Paloma Faith, at which point I put Radio 1 on again until they play Scouting For Girls again. AAAAAAAAAAARGH!

But they're turning the analogue signal off in 2015, aren't they? So who the hell's actually going to go out and buy a digital radio for the sole purpose of listening to Radio 1 or 2 then?


This is an interesting article, don't know if it will ever happen and I don't know how I feel about 6 becoming "Absolute-ized" but anyway:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7042533.ece

You can contribute your thoughts on the proposed BBC shake up, by answering the questions on the Online Survey Strategy Review.

https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/intro


...or email direct or snail mail to https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/consult_view

There's also a petition here: http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/ and here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/BBC-stop-the-cuts

but emailing the BBC trust is probably the best way.

I'm no conspiracy theorist but I'd bet money Rupert Murdoch and the Tories are behind this.

ha - Rupert Murdoch and teh Tories - what a great name for a band

I think its a sad day when cuts like this are announced but i can understand the pressures an organisation like the bbc face. However I can't quite understand the logic in telling its own audience to go elsewhere as in the case of commercial radio stations and even the teenage tv audience to stations like ch4. Surely all that does is dilute your potential viewers / listeners who could crossover to the more mainstream offerings.

I'm also quite disapointed to read that they plan to reduce their online content. i've always valued BBC online as a 'trusted' web site for information.

Seems our licence money will now be invested in programme making - but what type of programmes and who will they be aimed at ? God forbid if its more period shite or middle of the road crap.

Oh man...this is so awful! I've signed the petition and joined the Facebook group, even though I don't suppose anyone at the Beeb gives a flying frig what I think, since I am not a British license-paying citizen. I suppose I get why they need to cut some stuff out of the budget, and I don't pretend to understand all the politics of the situation. All I know is it's a damn shame. And how the hell will I live without Finest Hour??? As it is, I only hear it when the online player works (which, for me, is quite random), but still... wish I had a pile of money that I could give them just to keep it going. It'd be worth it. Even over here in the States, with a bazillion broadcast stations and satellite radio, I always found that 6Music had the best stuff on. Consistent quality, lots of variety, many entertaining and knowledgable on-air personalities, and it was available to anyone who wanted to hear radio done right. I will miss it in a big way. *sigh*

Wasn't Guy on another radio station prior to BBC 6music or am I confusing him with another individual? I won't criticize the BBC for this move, mainly because a) I'm not a UK resident and b) I think it's obvious that everyone knows how much cutting digital content makes no sense. If you're going digital, you don't move numerous steps backwards by cutting funding for something you're preparing for in 2015. I have no voice in the U.S., but I hope this gets sorted out and if this does get axed, I hope there is a place for people like Garv and Cocker to have a weekly radio program. There's no doubt in my mind that if Guy enjoyed it so much, he'll find a way to broadcast the same content on a weekly basis without BBC. Personally, I'd love for them to consider an Elbow podcast.

Did I understand right, that, if it get axed, it will be "end of next year", means Dec. 2011?
So we still might have time to protest on. Seems to work yet, according to this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/02/bbc-protests-change-mind-6music

And if they need the money so hard, I even would agree to pay some -let's say- premium account for not-UK-residents which would also enable them to watch those videos that are "not available in your area". I pay 3 Euros per month for last.fm and still they repeat songs three times a day. I pay 6 Euros per month for german radio, still the german pendant to radio 1 annoys with commercials!!
For a real good radiostation WITHOUT COMMERCIALS it would be at least worth it...

And @ ukonen, yes it was the Garve, he had his show "Guy Garvey's Payola" on XFM. It was a cool show but you had to be online in time to listen to it. I'd prefer a show that has a "listen again" function like the Beeb, especially because Guy's Finest Hour is at late night (for me), when I have to be in bed to be ready for work next morning...

It's not about the money. It's about Mark Thompson being "advised" (leant on/bribed?) by a former adviser to David Cameron, that 6 Music's audience (average age 37) should be listening to commercial radio instead, so they can go and spend their hard-earned cash on whatever's being advertised.

Hence the cuts in teen TV too - teenagers have more disposable income than almost anyone so they should all bugger off to Channel 4 where they too can be bombarded with ads for the latest must-have games console/Apple iExpensivegadget etc.

Well that Guardian link is encouraging at least...

Lee Spoons wrote:

It's not about the money. It's about Mark Thompson being "advised" (leant on/bribed?) by a former adviser to David Cameron, that 6 Music's audience (average age 37) should be listening to commercial radio instead, so they can go and spend their hard-earned cash on whatever's being advertised.

That's of course sad enough...

Lee Spoons wrote:

Hence the cuts in teen TV too - teenagers have more disposable income than almost anyone

well, before they earn money themselfs they get it from their parents who could be about 37... Or should I say, the so called Kids ruin their parents with expensive handy calls to bullfrog stations...

Still I wonder, why even public radiostations in Germany annoy with commercials...

could be a reprieve on the cards
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8546696.stm

Just a reminder if you haven't already heard: This is the week to buy your download of Half Man, Half Biscuit's "Joy Division Oven Gloves" to help it get to No 6 in the chart, in protest against threatened closure of the station.

This is no mean feat as I don't think HMHB have bothered the Top 40 since the late eighties, so please shell out 70-odd pence to 'do a Rage' for 6. John Peel would be proud.

More info:
love6music site
facebook HMHB JDOG at No 6 group

phew...for all not-brits, you can download at TuneTribe. All others only take UK residents.
Let's hope it works...

Done. Surprised HMHB aren't in the midweek charts. I smell a rather large industry cover-up disguised as a rat.

Heard this morning (on Today on R4) that 6music is likely to continue but is to be rebranded as R2 Extra. It will continue with the same DJs and playlists.

MrsW saw a report last night intimating the same thing (If we all ask nicely, she might put up a link)

This might not be a bad outcome for the listener, actually. It would make branding sense to tie the BBC stations on DAB to a more familiar "parent" radio station.

To use some Birtspeak, it would be more "on message".

1Xtra's link to R1 is already implicit. 6Music might be considered to link in with R2s output on a certain level and R7 certainly links with R4, so re-branding them under the Extra umbrella shouldn't hurt too much. I must say, though, this does look like a fudge; they appear to have been forced into a climbdown, but to save face, by re-branding the station they can still claim that they've got rid of 6Music like they said they were going to. But, as far as I'm concerned, they can call it what they want so long as we get the same service.

Worryingly, they may reduce the broadcast hours and incorporate some of the output back into R2.

I hope we don't have to start a "Save Guy Garvey's Finest Hour" campaign!

But, on the bright side, they might get rid of George Lamb because what he broadcasts is a lame copy of what we already get off Moyles, Evans and umpteen other drivetime DJ's.

His consignment to the weekend morning slot and his increased presence on BBC3 et al may indicate him moving off 6Music or whatever it's going to be called in order to further his TV career. Fingers crossed.

Various versions of the story, depending on your choice of rag:

Guardian
Independent
Telegraph

Follow Love6Music on Twitter for more emerging news & debate.

Mr Woman wrote:

But, as far as I'm concerned, they can call it what they want so long as we get the same service.

Agreed - I sincerely hope "several of the same DJs and much of the same playlists as now" doesn't imply more Snow Patrol and Kings of Leon (or worse), or the involvement at any level of Steve "Love The Show" Wright!

Someone posted this on the RH forum today -

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23829168-elbow-and-music-stars-back-online-campaign-to-save-6-music.do

I think this will be interesting tomorrow too:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20100428_debate.shtml?dnafrom=38&dnato=38

Has it been saved from the axe?

Richard Bacon, on Twitter, wrote:

Far be it from me to say I've had a tip off but there's gonna be a great story about 6Music tomorrow. Check mediaguardian.co.uk at 8am.