Save 6 Music. For little bands, yeah?

Hey all,

People don't usually get all het up about a Strategy review but when it's something or something that loud people on the internet love, you better watch out. We're going to break all this fuss about BBC 6 Music and The Asian Network down. If only somebody was there to speak up when they got rid of the broom cupboard...

1) The BBC Trust is the governing body of the BBC. They set the direction of the BBC by discussing the proposals of the BBC Director-General. That's this guy



Look how smug he is. This year he was guided by the mission that "the BBC should be no bigger than it needs to be to fulfil its mission". That is to provide strong and independent programming, trustworthy journalism, and put quality first. They also some stuff with celebrities in skimpy sparkly outfits. That too.

This didn't involve BBC 6 Music and The Asian Network and instead proposed "changes to improve the distinctiveness of Radio 2". The olds can listen to that and the youngsters can listen to Moyles in short. He also suggested halving the number of webpages [bye bye BBC Music sites?] and cut back on the BBCs teen-internship programmes like Blast and Switch.

B) A lot of people started fretting. People will lose their jobs [the fact that Lauren Lavene may get desperate enough to reform Kenickie doesn't quite make up for the fact we like hearing her on the radio] and listeners will have less choice. For fans of pop, hip hop, rock, new music and old music that means picking between Radio 1 [LOTS OF SHOUTING], Radio 2 [odd old men and a couple of trendy totally BBC types] or having adverts [I quite like Heart and Magic]. Thankfully they didn't come for crazies hour on BBC Five Live.

C) It was announced today that the plans were still going ahead, although that the station wouldn't close until late 2011. The station is "expensive ... given its relatively small audience" said Mr Smug to The Guardian.

D) Even more furore, fret and twibbons, a word that should never have ever been invented. Glastonbury are pissed, industry people are pissed, bands are pissed...

E) Massive campaign starts for reasons of "music loving", keeping jobs and hating tories even though they said it should be saved. [boo hiss tories anyway]

The saga rolls on.

Our twopence?

Lots of young bands won't get played on radio. Yes, there are blogs now, but everyone likes to hear their name read out by some smoothed voiced pro.

So go here and tell them that.

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