I am sure that there will be a lot of posts about why BBC 6 Music shouldn't be shut down, giving substantial reasons, including the fact that the recent BBC Trust report praised it as the sort of thing the BBC is for, namely filling in a gap which, for whatever reason, is not and probably will not be filled by commercial stations.*
Instead I'm going to do one giving my own personal reasons as to why 6 Music should be kept running, drawing from my own experience of listening to the station.**
BBC 6 Music started in 2002, while I was still at university, however, I did not start listening to it until Christmas 2003, when I obtained my first digital radio.
It is safe to say that 6 Music kept me going through the next 18 months at law college; I had stopped listening to Radio 1 a good while before and due to a combination of having a lot of access to the internet and cable TV had moved to XFM. I had occasionally switched to 6 Music, mainly during XFM's ad breaks and when Steve Lamacq was on, but had not spent any significant amount of time with it.
I cannot remember why exactly I started to listen to 6 Music, even though I could pick up XFM on my digital radio, I can only think that it was due to XFM's daytime shows. Anyway, I kept listening to 6 Music during the daytime and, due to the quality of their selections of new records – including playing !!! during the daytime! - kept on listening. I then started to listen to 6 Music during the weekend, particularly Stuart Macone's Freak Zone.***
I can safely say that I was hooked by 6 Music and from then on only listened to XFM in the evenings and rarely, if ever, to other stations. They play a hell of a lot of decent acts, which would have little, if any exposure elsewhere, due to the appalling state of Radio 1 and commercial radio.
After finishing law college I moved back to my dad's house and worked in Manchester. In order to make the 1 hour + commute bearable I bought a personal digital radio. Thanks to people like Steve Lamacq the – now sadly-departed – Test-Icicles were brought to my attention and I bought their album as soon as I could. I was also exposed to Bloc Party, MIA, Editors, the Futureheads and Maximo Park, amongst others.
Without 6 Music, I clearly would not have bought anywhere near the number of CDs which I have done over the past 6 years. Of course this would also mean that the coveted D-Notice Album of the Year award would probably not have been created, or if it had, would have been based upon a lot smaller selection of albums.
In my view, this is why the licence fee is justified – it gives the BBC the opportunity to do what would not be done elsewhere.
I do not say this often, but you must respond to the public consultation in the BBC's future (and by emailing srconsultation@bbc.co.uk, demanding that both 6 Music and the Asian Network**** are not only kept going, but are publicised a lot more so more people will be able to experience their quality. It has already been reported that the BBC's Trust would take into account public outcry against their planned closure, so the more people condemn the plans the better.
It is up to you: we either do what we can to keep them open, or the BBC gets rid of what makes it special.
* No, XFM doesn't count. It isn't a national station – it has a few local licences throughout the UK and otherwise is a simulcast of the London version – and, in my own view, isn't very good during the daytime. However, I am more than happy to defend programmes such as Jon Kennedy's X-Posure and Eddy Temple-Morris's The Remix.
** This post should be read in conjunction with my tribute to Teletext's Planet Sound which was sadly shut down just before Christmas. I could probably live without one, however, to lose both and in such a short space of time, would be a disaster, not only for myself, but presumably for the music industry in the UK. After all, a lot of bands which have appeared over the past decade will have had their first break on 6 Music, because of its playing of new and, therefore, obscure bands long before anyone else does.
*** I haven't listened to it for a few years, but that's mainly due to not listening to much radio at all during the weekends over the past few years.
**** I've not mentioned them in this post because I've never listened to it. However, from what I've read elsewhere, similar reasons apply as to why it should also be kept going.
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