This is cannot be allowed to happen!!

The hand of Rupert Murdoch is at work - claims that 6music diverts listeners away from commercial radio is absolute tosh.

To my mind, people who actually like music don't listen to commercial radio because:

a) they play rubbish music all day, every day
b) the DJ's are r.soles
c) there are adverts every 5 minutes

How can the BBC afford to pay Jonathan Woss £18m but not fund the best radio station in the country????

Any discerning music fans who don't listen to 6music should check it out

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/

Any fans on here?

Enough to have already to started a thread

That's an unfortunate example because he resigned from the BBC in January.

That other thread's rubbish though

Why Radio 6 in particular??

But mine was first

What do you mean why 6 in particular?

I occasionally listen to 6 music but it disappoints every time. On Sunday morning, I think it was, while doing the dishes I had it on. 30 minutes and they played two 'songs', one was Albatross by Fleetwood Mac, the rest of the time it was two very up-themselves 'DJs' making non-jokes about celeb topics. Garbage.

No great loss from what I've experienced. There are far better stations via the Web.

You must have picked a bad time to tune in. I admit some of the DJ's are a pain, but the music is normally excellent.

I've never really listened to this but as the only time I regularly listen to radio is in the morning it was something I'd have considered looking at whenever Chris Moyles and his team finally get sent packing and replaced by some chavvy teenager...

Seems like they're also moving Radio 2 to some extent back towards more specialist, speech-based and older target audience programmes and effectively abandoning the 30-50 audience to commercial radio. Which as others have said, often doesn't fit the bill for a variety of reasons. There has to be room for a "Radio 1.5" somewhere.

Radio 2 is often excellent (he says as a 30-50er) but can be dull old-style Radio 2

Never listened to 6. Just turned on for first time ever and playing Johnny Cash but why bother with his old sidekick when Mark Radcliffe is on 2?

it's worth looking at the playlists for each show to see what 6music are playing

They should dump the more expensive R1, as chart music is everywhere, unlike the stuff on R6.

Weekend morning output is poor, way too much chat, not to mention the abysmal talent-vacuum that is George Lamb. But some of the shows are excellent, particularly Marc Riley, Gideon Coe and Guy Garvey, quality broadcasting you really won't get anywhere else. And if you're a fan if the weird and out-there, there's no better show than Stuart Maconie's Freakzone on a Sunday afternoon.

There are so many better ways that the BBC can cut their costs, scrapping the appalling BBC3 would be a start. There's a petition to sign here:

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

You can't mean BBC3, the home of Gavin & Stacey, The Mighty Boosh, Family Guy, Being Human, Ideal, Nighty Night and many other new to TV comedies, can you? And Harry Hill would lose half of his content if there wasn't Freaky Eaters!

As for 6 Music, I often put it on, only to not like the first couple of songs, so change it. I would like to like it though

Yes, also Snog, Marry, Avoid? and endless repeats of the execrable Two Pints Of Lager...all of the programs you mentioned above could easily be fit into the schedules for BBC1 or BBC2 while cutting some of the crap. Seeing as many of them have made the transition over to the terrestrial channels, it seems like BBC3 is seen as a hotbed where new ideas can be tested out, if only producers and managers had a bit more courage/discerning, they could stop the crap from getting made and put the decent stuff on the mainstream channels.

That's what BBC2 was for... Fawlty Towers was first broadcast on BBC2

But times have changed, there are now hundreds of channels to chose from, so BBC1 & 2 are less likely to try out new/edgy/alternative shows, particularly comedies. Despite their remit, they still need to get viewers, so BBC3 is the perfect place to try things out to see if it does have an audience or not.

I think BBC4 would be the better choice for the chop, its content could easily be shown on BBC2 or left to Channel4/More 4 to show.

Anyway, we digress, I don't think any of these channels should be cut. probably agree with the Asian radio station if any have to go, but the better way to cut costs would be at management level and the amount it pays its 'stars'.

What is the point of R1? What does it do that other stations do not do?

The only time I listen to music on the radio is when I dont have any choice - when I'm in the gym, having my hair cut, etc etc - because I've yet to discover a DJ who's more interested in music than he/she is in the sound of their own voice. The reason John Peel was so lionised is that, almost uniquely, he genuinely was more interested in the music. So, from a personal point of view, 6 Music will be no loss. Web-based stations, MySpace and Spotify are all you need to keep in touch with what's going on.

As for BBC cost-cutting, I agree with blah blah - Rado 1 is the one to axe, because by and large it plays the same chart rubbish as all the mainstream independent stations do. It also probably pays its DJs more than anyone else, so it's the obvious candidate.

I remember a few years back there was a pirate station in the south-east that broadcasted from a boat in the north sea, laser558. Tag line 'never more than a minute away from music' there were very few ads, and they were mainly in Dutch, probably why it didnt last. Music was mostly alternative, but without any jocks talking over intros it was quite good.
I don't think radio 6 will leave such a big hole, we have NME, Kerrang, and Xfm which pushes quite a few unsigned artists.

They need ratings to justify the licence fee and their nice pay packets, they would never drop Radio 1.

Marc Riley, Gideon Coe, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne, Tom Robinson - all hugely pasionate about the music they play, all on 6Music.

I agree that it is the station for those that grew up on Peel.

Shame about a few of the presenters, that Namoan woman in the afternoon is a pain, bring back Ms Matthews , but she still plays good music.

Laser 558 that is a blast from the past! Pirate radio for tjsoe to young to remember pirate radio....

The (valid) argument for binning Radio 1 could almost be applied as well to BBC 1 and that is never hoing to happen.

All the decent Radio 6 stuff could be incorporated into Radio 2 if the stuff on there for the real oldies was kicked out to BBC local radio or Radios 3 and 4.

If that's the case then I might give them a go. But I have an extremely low tolerance level of radio piffle - even if the presenter is passionate about the music, all I really want to know is what the previous record was, what the next record is, and maybe one or two words about the band or track concerned. The trouble is, most DJs would find that far too limited - they want more imput because otherwise (understandably) they'd get bored. To be honest, now that we have the internet I wouldn't even listen to John Peel these days. Basically, me and DJs is never going to work.

I agree. People often quote that BBC3 has produced all these shows like Little Britain etc, but BBC2 was previously the testing ground for new stuff (remember when the Fast Show was a departure from the usual?). You can cut the slack out of BBC 1 and 2 and still fit in the new bits that are going to BBC3, and save a lot of money in the meantime.

And BBC4

BBC3 and 4, have some good/interesting stuff on them, while 1 and 2 are normally dross.

The BBC's caught between a rock and a hard place these days: as a public service broadcaster, it should be producing material above the lowest common denominator - 'educate, inform and entertain' as the motto goes. But if they don't appeal to the masses, then they'll start to protest at having to pay their licence fee as they can watch far 'better' stuff on ITV, Sky etc. So they walk this fine tightrope trying to do both, I think they've done it fairly effectively up till now but obviously cuts are starting to bite. In many ways the idea of a public service broadcaster seems like something of an anachronism these days, but I'd far rather we had the BBC than not - just look at Fox News to see Murdoch's vision for the future of TV.

But it seems like they are planning to move more of Radio 2's airtime back to older audience targeted, speech based and more specialist stuff.

Radio 1 plays an important role in promoting new music (even if a lot of it is crap) - why the need for 1Xtra though?

Does it?

I was under the impression that R2 was going 60+, and R1 going younger.

Top playlist today.

Nowhere else play this lot