6Music: Dead man walking?

Public consultation on a whole raft of cuts planned at the BBC ends today, after the Corporation confirmed in March that, among other things, it would axe digital radio stations 6Music and the Asian Network and halve the number of Beeb websites by 2012. Auntie said at the time that it hoped to make savings of around £600m a …

[Anonymous Coward]

Axing half the beeb websites?

OMG, if they cut back on the IT reporting where's The Reg gonna nick half it's stories from each day??

[fixit_f]

Eh?

What has cutting BBC 6 music got to do with the new Tory government cutting the public deficit? It's funded completely outside the tax system. It's not like they're proposing to make the license cheaper, or siphon the money off into government to spend on something else!

[James Dunmore]

Part Funded

@fixit_f the BBC is only part funded by the license fee, the gov does chuck in some cash too (okay, part funded = mostly funded)

[Anonymous Coward]

in truth, they don't need to save 6 Music ...

... they could just port the same diversity of taste and expertise over to R1. Simples.

[Code Monkey]

Sack Chris Moyles

Losing Moyles and his equally unfunny cronies would free up enough money to save 6Music. It's the only music station worth bothering with.

[The Original Steve]

Really...

...well 8 Million listeners would disagree with you. Is that about 1 in 7 of the UK population? (roughly)

Down to earth, if cheesy, light-hearted comedy is something I quite enjoy first thing in the morning - plus some modern popular music of mixed genre.

I'll flick to Radio 4 for the more informative and topical comedy whilst driving home.

And unless auntie wants to provide me with a DAB radio AND coverage for my commute I don't even have the option of listening to 6Music.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Really...

Moyles is a nasty bastard who wouldn't know funny if it pantsed him and made him waddle along Oxford Street. But they won't sack him yet. I'm sure they will eventually after he says something so fantastically offensive that they're forced to, but yeah, not yet, sadly.

I really hope 6Music survives.

[Andy 97]

@Sarah

And you know this for sure do you?

I had wondered if you'd met him perhaps?

Do you think he may be playing a part on the air and in reality is quite a quiet and shy person....

6Music on the other hand is pretentious and should be left as an internet-only station.

[Dale Richards]

Re: Really...

It's posts like this that make me remember why I love the Bee so much. Thank you.

If the BBC kill off 6Music they'll be pissing on their own strawberries. With one hand they're trying to force DAB radios down people's throats, and with the other they're taking away the only good reason to get one. Who cares if the listener figures are unimpressive? That's the BBC's remit; that's the whole point of the BBC Charter - to cater for the markets that can't be provided for by commercial stations.

Let the commercial stations worry about listener figures. The BBC is there to provide everything else.

[Bob Arthur]

OK

And down to earth, if cheesy, light-hearted comedy is something you get on 6 Music from Shaun Keavney, with modern popular music of mixed genre pretty much 6 on the head.

As for lack of DAB, with the (currently planned, some are skeptical) analogue switch-off in 2015 means that someone's gonna have to address this soon enough (I'm led to believe that signal improvements for cars is one of the pre-requisites for that switch-off).

[Red Bren]

Joined up thinking?

Trade in your old analogue radio for an over-priced, power-hungry DAB model with all-new reduced selection of stations.

[LuMan]

Barrel, over a, shafted!

Well, here's a novel solution to save money - screw the UK public. Again. If any other service provider decided to drop one of its services then folk would simply stop paying for it until the service provider dwindled to nothing. However, with the BBC (and the 'unique' way it's funded) we don't have that option, so, pay the same (or perhaps more) and receive less. Oh, and don't bother complaining 'cos it's against the law if you don't pay. So there.

With any luck 6Music will continue - along with the other BBC services we fund. But I suppose it's only a matter of time.......

[Trygve]

"screw the UK public. Again."

Damn right, robbing me of my hard-earned to pay for some rubbish radio station I don't listen to.

Given that nowadays I only listen to half an hour of Radio 2 in the morning plus classic FM, I'd prefer it if they binned the whole of BBC radio and cut the licence fee.

[Steen Hive]

The unmitigated gall.

"Signing its death warrant would not only let down music fans, it would fail generations of British artists who do not get played otherwise.”

Not that this sorry state of affairs is in any way the BPI's fault in the first place, eh?

Wankers.

[blackworx]

They should axe 1Xtra instead

It's a steaming pile of horseshit, almost identical to the steaming pile of horseshit that is R1, and undoubtedly costs a fuck of a lot more than 6Music to keep warm (and steaming).

Right, that's that sorted. Next!

[The Original Steve]

Couldn't agree more

1Xtra just seems to be Radio 1 but for "black" music (their words - not mine).

Not sure what a public service broadcast radio station is doing when it's confined to just one genre. At least R1 plays various sub-genre's (under a pop umbrella) during the day but switches to alternative and music driven content in the evening and overnight.

Ditch 1Xtra and save 6Music sounds good to me.

[James Dunmore]

XFM

Sorry - but axe 6music. XFM used to offer everything 6 does (half the DJ's are from xfm anyway) - granted XFM now doesn't do that, but that's because it has had to adapt due to the BBC taking away target audience (and, I suppose, commerical owners not quite understanding it).

If it got he audience, XFM could easily do what 6 does. In fact, the BBC license fee should go towards commercial bodies trying to create stations such as XFM, rather than create its own, bloated DAB (mega money) only stations.

The decent stuff from 6 can go onto radio 2 (that is having an identity crisis), and scrap the station.

(don't get me wrong, I'm a massive indie music fan - just can't see the point in 6music)

[MJI]

XFM - who are they?

Never found them while scanning for radio to listen to in the car. Not on my list of stations on my AV receiver.

Pity 6 Music is not on FM. Then I could listen to it in the car rather than through a sat box.

Before anyone jumps in and say get DAB car radio - show me one with CD changer control AND an MD slot.

[Reg Varney]

@James Dunmore

Yes, but the whole point is that XFM *doesn't* do that - not because it can't compete with 6Music, but because it was bought by Capital and drastically re-targeted the station. They don't want to compete with 6Music, they just want a student-oriented equivalent of Crapital.

XFM was great when it started, but has been utter shite for years

[Bob Arthur]

Nope

Nice thought, but commercial experts have already stated that they have nothing to gain from the closure of 6 Music, as they cannot feasibly occupy the space it would leave (http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2010/03/05/13011-radio-boss-commercial-sector-will-gain-nothing-from-6-music-closure). Commercial stations absolutely need to stick with "safe" music, or risk upsetting the nice people that pay them for ad-slots. The fact that a bunch of 6 Music presenters used to be at XFM demonstrates nothing but a normal career progression; it doesn't show that XFM is in any way the same as 6 Music, any more than the newsagent that payed me for a paper-round is like the software company I now work for (OK - analogy's pants, but I couldn't quite resist ;-) )

Radio 2 is a non-starter too - it is explicitly stated in the review that Radio 1 should target 15-29 year olds, and Radio 2 target 50+ "or higher". 6 Music has no explicitly stated target audience, but currently seems to be most listened to by the 30-somethings. The only way 6 Music content could be rehomed would be by giving it graveyard shift slots, which is pretty much as wrong as closure.

And as for the article itself, the Board has stated clearly that they are not planning to cut the total radio budget, but to redirect money currently spent in 6 Music and Asian Network to the other stations, so the call for cuts doesn't add up as a good reason to axe 6 either.

[neverSteady]

Close it down

As long as they give Adam & Joe a show somewhere else, I don't mind what they do.

[SynnerCal]

Re: XFM

James Dunmore wrote: "Sorry - but axe 6music. XFM used to offer everything 6 does "

Erm, no it doesn't/didn't. Can I get the Huey Morgan show, or the Bruce Dickinson Rock Show? No - thought not!

then he wrote: "If it got he audience, XFM could easily do what 6 does."

But then again, if the silly sods in the BBC did, as someone above suggests, and migrated 1Xtra's content to Radio1 (why should m.o.b.o. be on a "minority" station - ghettoism to me) and then put the good stuff off of 6Music to 1Xtra.

"In fact, the BBC license fee should go towards commercial bodies trying to create stations such as XFM"

No, no, that's the stupidest suggestion since the one about making teapots from chocolate. If you do that for XFM, then within a minute you'll have that Aussie a-hole Murdoch coming round for some tax money for Sky.

My opinion? The icon says it all.

[icetroggy]

Bruce has been axed

You won't be able to get the Bruce Dickinson Rock Show on 6music either after next week. The nice people at the BBC axed it.

[MnM]

Save

'I suppose, commerical owners not quite understanding it'

You said it JD. XFM had it, and has gone off. Virgin was great when it started, not quite in the same vein, and it went off. Both victims of their own success. 6Music is on it right now and *should* have the right custodian in the BBC.