OT - Axeing 6 Music

shouldbeinbed

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

in the morass of Chris The Cretin Moyles live from up his own arse show and other children's drivel on Radio 1 and old or obscure, rather than up and coming, on Radio 2 there has been one beacon in BBC programming worth the licence fee on it's own.

my initial reaction rhymed with the ducking hunts and I'm not much calmer now.

Aguila

+1

Easily the best radio station around.

nicklouse

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=278123313911

http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

Complain directly to the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/

spen666

Sadly for you 2 (or 3), you are in the vast minority.

Clearly the station was not popular with enough people

asprilla

Popular isn't, directly, part of the BBC remit, it's a public service broadcaster and should be filling the gaps that aren't and won't be met by commercial broadcasters.

That's not to say it shouldn't be producing similar content to it's commercial cousins, since someone needs to stop standards falling to the lowest common denominator. Cutting R6, if it happens, would be an error. Same goes for the Asian Network.

attica

6 Music has filled the gap between R1 and R2 for me.
R1 = Youth friendly drivel and shouting
R2 = OK at times but I'm not ready to don a cardigan and listen to songs from the shows or organ music or Dermot O'Leary just yet .

BBC have denied it so far, I really hope there is no truth in it.

CiB

Reality is that 6M along with 1Xtra and BBC 7 were designed to boost uptake of DAB by providing new content. BBC7 apart it hasn't worked.

The Asian Network used to be carried by some local BBC stations where the target audience existed (Leicester, W Mids, Bradford etc) on the BBC Local's MW freqencies, and it suited the BBC perfectly to make it nationally available on DAB. Again, it hasn't worked. The oft-quoted stat is that it would be cheaper for the BBC to run off a copy of these shows on CD and post them to the listeners individually.

DAB is a dead duck in reality. It promised CD quality but the only way you could ever get CD quality (or any kind of quality) in the early days was to buy £800 worth of DAB wireless set from Arcam. What sort of idiotic gullible gadget fan with a bit too much spare dosh lying around would do that, and then discover that the quality was no better than FM anyway? Yep, I did. :oops:

I hope they do drop these stations from DAB. At least then the bit rate might get shoved back to where it used to be, 192K for the mainstream stations, and R3 not dropping to 160 or R4 not dropping to mono when 5L Sports Extra is on. Heck they could even do the other thing that was promised with DAB, and extend 5L to multiple additional streams when the need arises, like Wimbledon, F1, TMS & a World Cup match all happning at once. That's what was on offer in the original DAB plans. It never happened. Nor did good quality sound.

lost_in_thought

6 Music? What on earth is that?

*googles

wikipedia wrote:

...only one in five UK residents were aware the station existed...

Well then, axe away the Beeb, axe away. Apparently Absolute Radio will buy it anyway. I like Absolute Radio.

the_hundredth_idiot

I like 6Music - but I rarely listen to it because it's only on DAB. I've got a DAB clock radio by the side of my bed - but that's hardly a pleasure to listen to for any length of time. The other DAB radio in the house is the kitchen stereo - and the kitchen is too full of noise (including two young children) and competing demands to tune into 6Music with any realistic hope of a listen (though it's still on a pre-set for me).

No DAB in the sitting room, no DAB in the car, no portable DAB for when I'm out and about.

And I bet I have better access to DAB radios than most - my parents don't have a DAB radio (they still tune into local radio on their little old kitchen wireless), my sister just has a little DAB radio in her kitchen (that gets tuned into the same local radio station as my parents) and my in-laws don't have a DAB radio.

I suspect for many of us it's more about DAB being, as CiB put it, a "dead duck" rather than any comment on the quality of 6Music itself. I'd be interested to see stats on how many people listen to the cross-format stations (i.e. those on both DAB and FM) on DAB and how many still listen on FM. That would give an idea of how little impact DAB has had.

attica

If the take-up is so poor, is the "digital switchover" actually going to happen?

linsen

Attica wrote:

6 Music has filled the gap between R1 and R2 for me.
R1 = Youth friendly drivel and shouting
R2 = OK at times but I'm not ready to don a cardigan and listen to songs from the shows or organ music or Dermot O'Leary just yet .

BBC have denied it so far, I really hope there is no truth in it.

When was the last time you actually listened to R2 Attica?

IME, R2 is a re-run of R1 from my teenage years and is therefore strangely comforting.

R6 is what I would like other people to think I am cool enough to listen to. I actually prefer the Archers and gardener's question time

attica

linsen wrote:

When was the last time you actually listened to R2 Attica?

Most nights I will make the effort to tune in to Radcliffe and Maconie on R2, sometimes I inadvertently leave the radio on R2 and end up waking up to the annoying wine that is Chris Evans.

If I'm in the car and driving I will listen to R2 whenever there's something on R4 that I don't like (no DAB in the car). So that's whenever The Archers or GQT comes on. :twisted:
Often in that case I'll listen to 5 minutes of R2 in the car, give R1 a try and then switch off the radio altogether.

Fussy so and so ain't I?

CiB

Attica wrote:

If the take-up is so poor, is the "digital switchover" actually going to happen?

Reality? No way. There just too many analogue radios in existence in cars, kitchens, caravans and other places that begin with a k sound.

To achieve DSO the target is a pretty soft 50% 'listening', but to achieve this half of the cars on the road (20m +) would need a DAB radio fitted. They aren't even fitted now as standard and aren't likely to be in the near future, esp now that the rest of the world is looking at or implementing DAB+ or DRM. The days when you went to Halfords to buy a better car radio are gone now that radios are built into the dash and intrinsically linked to the car through steering wheel controls, bluetooth, being the display for the aircon etc etc. We aren't going to see 10 million OEM and aftermarket DAB radios fitted into cars by 2015, no way.

And how many radios do you have around the house? Clock radios, bathroom, garage, everywhere you go there's a radio. How long have you had them? Years probably. They work, they're cheap, the batteries last for ever. What incentive is there to buy a new radio that doesn't work as well and gobbles batteries at a rate of knots to continue listening to what you listen to? None. I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of DAB radios are given as gifts.

DSO in 2015 is a pipe dream; the industry itself accepts this but uses it as a target, to scare people into buying DAB.

I could bang on, but I won't. Have a read of Steve Green's web site and see the other view, the customers' view. Digitalradiotech

daviesee

Attica wrote:

If the take-up is so poor, is the "digital switchover" actually going to happen?

Unfortunately - Definitely Maybe, see below.......

See here:-
http://www.switchhelp.co.uk/faq_radio.html

DAB quality is the carrot to entice us over.

As others have found out to their cost, it is a con. Resist it.

CiB

Equally, it's a farce, ridiculous, a complete fantasy...

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/2009/11/fm_switch-off_date_is_ridiculous.php

secretsam

Am really cheesed off about this as we've only just got a digital radio and was really looking forward to listening to it

Radio 1 is utter shi7e with DJs whose egos are even more inflated than the talentless pr1cks whose music they play

And Radio 2 is a little...staid...

XFM is OK though

CiB

You and Yours on Radio 4 have just said that they'll be devoting a chunk of tomorrow's programme to this and wider issues to do with the BBC. Noon, Tuesday 2nd. Phone in and have your say.

cjcp

linsen wrote:

IME, R2 is a re-run of R1 from my teenage years and is therefore strangely comforting.

+1.

@Attica - don the cardigan. Join us. It's where the fun is.

Radcliffe and Maconie are brilliant.

attica

cjcp wrote:

linsen wrote:

IME, R2 is a re-run of R1 from my teenage years and is therefore strangely comforting.

+1.

@Attica - don the cardigan. Join us. It's where the fun is.

Radcliffe and Maconie are brilliant.

Totally agree about Radcliffe and Maconie, only one problem.

I do NOT cardigan

linsen

Attica wrote:

cjcp wrote:

linsen wrote:

IME, R2 is a re-run of R1 from my teenage years and is therefore strangely comforting.

+1.

@Attica - don the cardigan. Join us. It's where the fun is.

Radcliffe and Maconie are brilliant.

Totally agree about Radcliffe and Maconie, only one problem.

I do NOT cardigan

It's just a matter of time. Oh how I will laugh when that time comes :twisted:

attica

Never I tell you

NEVER

spen666

Asprilla wrote:

Popular isn't, directly, part of the BBC remit, it's a public service broadcaster and should be filling the gaps that aren't and won't be met by commercial broadcasters.

That's not to say it shouldn't be producing similar content to it's commercial cousins, since someone needs to stop standards falling to the lowest common denominator. Cutting R6, if it happens, would be an error. Same goes for the Asian Network.

But if the public are not listening to it in sufficient numbers it is not providing a public service! The line has to be drawn somewhere or we could all demand our own public broadcasting stations- eg I want a spen666 radio station that only plays music I like.

I was interested to read in the Times today the letter from the record industry saying R6 should stay because it showcases new talent... ie BBC should pay for a station to make us money. If the record industry like the broadcasting of R6 they can buy it and run it themselves. Why should the licence payer advertise the record industry?

attica

spen666 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

Popular isn't, directly, part of the BBC remit, it's a public service broadcaster and should be filling the gaps that aren't and won't be met by commercial broadcasters.

That's not to say it shouldn't be producing similar content to it's commercial cousins, since someone needs to stop standards falling to the lowest common denominator. Cutting R6, if it happens, would be an error. Same goes for the Asian Network.

But if the public are not listening to it in sufficient numbers it is not providing a public service! The line has to be drawn somewhere or we could all demand our own public broadcasting stations- eg I want a spen666 radio station that only plays music I like.

I was interested to read in the Times today the letter from the record industry saying R6 should stay because it showcases new talent... ie BBC should pay for a station to make us money. If the record industry like the broadcasting of R6 they can buy it and run it themselves. Why should the licence payer advertise the record industry?

That's a good point until you remember that all artists were new talent once.
R6 is in the spirit of John Peel, without whom we wouldn't have many many favourites.

So in answer to your question "Why should the licence payer advertise the record industry?" It's so we can all benefit.

don_don

Absolute Radio tends to be on in the office and I quite like Amazing, which is apparently all unsigned bands. I used to listen to 6 Music but have lost interest. It seems quite difficult to find anything worth listening to on the radio these days. Or, perhaps my taste in music is changing with age. Perhaps I'll buy a cardigan...

don_don

Absolute Radio tends to be on in the office and I quite like Amazing, which is apparently all unsigned bands. I used to listen to 6 Music but have lost interest. It seems quite difficult to find anything worth listening to on the radio these days. Or, perhaps my taste in music is changing with age. Perhaps I'll buy a cardigan...

Porgy

I bought two DABs purely to listen to 6music. If they scrap 6Music I will be throwing my radios at Chris Moyle's head.

As I understand it 6Music listenership has been rising steadily in the last few years and is mainly being held back these days by being digital only. In digital only terms it is doing extremely well.

If people haven't heard of it then there's also a problem with marketing it - a higher profile strategy of promoting the station should be tried before talk of scrapping it.

Also Radio Three seems to be going down the plughole big time - maybe they should make Radio Three digital only and put 6Music in Radio Three's FM slot. I've no doubt on a level playing field 6Music would eclipse Three for audience figures.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/16/radio1

Of course if it's ratings that matter - why not scrap all the radio stations and replace them with populist and commerically driven pap. that would guarantee a big audience and that would surely be good use of license payers money, wouldn't it? :roll:

The digital stations need long term nurturing imo - they are the future we are told. and if they're not then 6Music should be moved to the far superior FM band imo.
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davmaggs

The trouble is the BBC has used it's weight in various markets to crush independent companies earning a living. At the same time they are so nervous about losing the licence fee that they chase ratings and more and more segments of the market in order to demonstrate just how much they can do.

Asian radio had numerous companies making a go of it long before the BBC came along. They had to pull back from too much online education content as they were bankrupting private firms. They use millions of pounds of airtime to promote their own magazines.

Whether you support the BBC or not there is a very strong case for saying they are too big. AN or 6 is probably just a sop to parliament, and doesn't resolve the issue about trying to keep justifying the fee by chasing numbers.

And as for buying the Lonely Planet (never mind the deal behind it), how do they justify that.

Porgy

I would give that argument credence if any of the commerical radio stations were any good. Unfortunately demands of advertisers seems to render the content of commerical stations repetitive and undemanding.

shouldbeinbed

I like the idea of giving 6 a go in the R3 slot (sorry R3 fans but if your station went you have a ready made replacement in classic FM). R2 has its moments but spreads its net far too wide to be a tune in and leave it station

I'm also a fan of BBC R7 but is does seem to be on a 6 month loop and has far less original and evolving programming than 6 does. There's only so many times you can listen to reruns of Dads Army & the Goon Show, Paul Temple and the Rachel Mystery or the Voice of God.

I fear that the short term attraction of BBC7 is going to fade as people have DAB radios for a longer time and start to recognise 60-70% of the programming as repeated and it'll add another string to the scrap the licence fee, the listener numbers don't justify it arguments.

but I guess it's far easier and cheaper to raid the archives and loop the tapes with a handful of continuity voiceovers than pay for knowledgeable presenters and the royalties for new and varied music programming.

arguing DAB vs FM (lets not forget the magic of AM too ) is like arguing cycling vs driving. just because its a minority uptake doesn't justify the argument, not many people partake so get rid. That way lies 24 hours a day of Chris Moyles and Coronation Street.

cjcp

Confession time: I don't own a DAB radio. <runs for cover>

daviesee

6 Music RIP

The BBC takes another massive leap further in dumbing even further down :evil: