save BBC 6music!

so I wake up from my illness-induced stupor, open my email, and read this from Emmy the Great:

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hello all,

I don't tend to use my mailing list that often, so please forgive the twice in a week.

Firstly, we're doing Tweedy on Saturday night. She wins. Everybody loves her. Apparently she cries diamonds.

On another note, newspapers are reporting today that the BBC is closing down 6music. According to Shaun Keaveny on his breakfast show, this isn't set in stone, but it's a definite possibility.

6music is probably the only reason we sold any records, and it's certainly the only reason I pay a licence fee DESPITE NOT HAVING A TV. Now I guess I'm paying for the website.

They say in the report that one of the reasons is because 80% of adults have never heard of 6music - a weak excuse for closing down an ALTERNATIVE radio station. Consider also that it costs just under a third of Jonathan Ross's last reported BBC salary to run it.

There are still ways to show your discontent - If you're on Twitter chances are you've seen the top trend of the day is #saveBBC6music, but people are also leaving comments under the articles that broke the news (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7041944.ece, or joining groups on Facebook (no links for that, sorry), or sending in emails to the station itself. I'm gratefully accepting any other modes of complaint, and will post them on Myspace as blogs.

It might not do anything, but it'll be a nice rush of activity before we return to throwing things at the radio every time the dial accidentally lands on a music channel.

Oh, and they're shutting down the Asian Network too. That's my plan B gone.

Thanks BBC.

from Emmy

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Emmy is the only Chinese woman I know of and am proud of in "pop music" and I agree with her statements wholeheartedly. BBC 6music is a station that plays alternative stuff, not just top 40, not just stuff middle-aged people (sorry) want to hear on their commutes home. not only do they play great music, they have live sessions (the Hub sessions, as noted in a Tweet by Frankie of Frankie and the Heartstrings earlier today), they have cool specialist shows like Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone and Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service, just started this year, and they even have cool documentaries on the history of music! I mean, it's not just the same boring sludge we get here in the States.

I realise I don't pay the license fee and therefore I'm not really in a good position to argue WHY the station should be saved because I've never "paid" for it as such, but I consider all the $ and £ I've paid to see concerts, buy music, buy merch, and travel around America and to Britain for ANY artist I've heard on the station as payment to the music community at large. b/c what 6music does better than any of the other BBC radio stations is get people excited about music.

BBC 6music also personally means a lot to me. not only do I listen to it a heck of a lot, I've gotten to "know" several of their DJs (in particular, Steve Lamacq, Nemone Metaxas, and Stuart Maconie) and if the radio station was canned, it'd be like losing members of my family.

I need to do some research on petitions and such. I already joined the Save 6music Facebook group weeks ago when Andrew Collins mentioned it on his Twitter that the gears were in motion for their closing.

dunno what I'm going to listen to if 6music closes. I guess I'll be stuck with Radio2 and the odd Radio1 programme. (I still think Zane Lowe shouts way too much.) if Drowned in Sound can be believed, Absolute Radio has said they'd buy the station, in which case I'll probably follow them instead.