Public Service Announcement

So the rumours turned out to be true, and the BBC, as part of a raft of cost cutting measures, plan to mothball its 6Music radio station. This disappoints me both personally and as a rational human being.

I am lucky enough to have a DAB radio, and when I last checked I can pick up 63 different stations from my bedroom in Cardiff. Of all of those, though, I only really listen to 4 of them on anything like a regular basis.

BBC Radio 4 - For current affairs analysis, arts and comedy
BBC Radio 5 Live (and it's sister service 5 Live Extra) - News and Sport, Kermode's film reviews (and occasionally getting angry at phone-ins)
BBC 6Music - For absolutely everything else I could want from a radio station

So killing off a station that accounts for maybe half of my time spent listening to the radio is bound to personally upset me. However, as a man of logic and science, let's put personal issues aside and prove why this decision is fundamentally wrong.

What reasons could the BBC management have for shutting the station?

Low audience figures - Perhaps, but they're rising all the time, and would probably get another bump as the digital switchover spreads further around the country. And if listener figures were in any way important Radio 3 would have been shut down years ago. My dad loves classical music and can't stand Radio 3. And besides, the BBC don't raise funds from advertising revenue, so why do they need higher listener figures? Just a thought.

Cost cutting - Given the BBC is supposed to be a public service, I would have thought that if cost cutting was required it would happen in ways that would not effect programming. It's not exactly serving the public to remove the service is it?

Unfair competition and monopolisation against commercial radio stations - Nope. Name me another radio station which provides the same kind of variety and depth of music anywhere in the world. It's unique. Commercial radio does not even attempt to occupy the same space. I spent one particular summer working in the admin office at a GP surgery where they had Heart FM on the background, and during one shift I counted just 12 different songs in 4 hours. Twelve. Even the kidney meltingly irritating adverts were repeated up to three times an hour. Commercial radio stations work on the principle of paying for as little music as possible, the polar opposite to what 6Music do.

If the BBC insist on attempting to run everything by demographics and focus groups, then it makes absolutely no sense to shut down 6Music, or the Asian Network. Both these stations serve an audience that aren't catered for anywhere else. Commercial radio covers the ground that Radios 1 & 2 occupy, so why not shut them down?

The tone thus far might give you the impression that I'm hating on the BBC. That couldn't actually be further from the truth. I love it. I am proud that we have it. There is no equivalent of it in any other country in the world. Yes, there are bad decisions being made right now, but I don't think they are the fault of the BBC as an organisation.

No, instead the blame must lie with the public for not understanding what the BBC is, and politicians for jumping on that particularly ignorant bandwagon to try and score political capital.

Here's the thing about the license fee: it's a tax, not a subscription.

The funds collected from the license fee are used to make programmes for everyone. Not everyone at once though, that would be impossible. Individual programmes are made to appeal to different subsets of audience members with different tastes. You will not like everything that is on. So DON'T WATCH IT ALL.

All of this, in a way, is the continuing aftershocks of Ross-Brand. If you think you'd be offended by something, why watch? Why listen? It's not as if you're lacking in choice for something else to entertain you.

I have never written in to complain about Songs Of Praise because it's boring. Or about Cash In The Attic because I don't find antiques or collectibles particularly interesting. Or about My Family because it isn't funny. Or about Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow because it's immature. IT'S NOT MEANT FOR ME. So what if part of my licence fee paid for it. Presumably these shows make someone else happy, so that's fine with me.

I'm lucky enough not to have cancer, but that doesn't mean I want to see the oncology ward at the local hospital to close because I'm not using it. Even when I eventually start paying income tax and national insurance again. Do you see what I'm getting at?

It's pressure from my favourite group of people, Ignorant ass-tards who shout louder than everyone else, that is responsible for the BBC making cutbacks in these areas, and they should be ashamed of themselves. It will be a dark day when people like myself, and indeed listeners to the Asian Network, are forced to listen in the middle of the night to catch their favourite shows and presenters. God forbid, we might even be forced to put up with the emotional and mental torture of hearing the likes of Chris Evans, Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles, Zane Low and Jo Wiley on the off chance that maybe 1 song in every 10 is one we like. Fuck that shit.

I'm happy to carry on paying for all the shit they choose to listen. But they'll have to prise 6Music from my cold, dead hands.

Here are some links if you agree with me and would like to do something about this.

Petition on Avaaz.org
Save 6Music Facebook Group (Includes lots of links and email adresses to lobby our case)
Comment on the BBC Strategic Review