As everyone has heard overnight, the BBC may be cutting some of it’s services, one of which is the digital station 6 Music. Let’s be honest and straight up on this one, it would really hurt new music if this is the case.

Over the last few years we have seen Radio 1 sink into a state of ‘celebrity DJ’ over actual music fan so people flocked to 6 Music. For all of Jo Whiley’s annoyances, at least she wasn’t Fearne Cotton and anyone choosing ’Grimmy’ over Lamacq is clearly a fool.  But at 6 Music you could hear people like Steve Lamacq, Marc Riley, Lauren Laverne all playing music because they love and understand it. Guy Garvey’s radio show was absolutely brilliant but who else would have given him the slot to do it?  6 Music also gave us the Saturday morning perfection of Adam and Joe, now being nicely run by Collins and Herring. It was broadcasting that was not aimed at everyone but from the ground swell of outcry today, it clearly meant a lot to some.  Indeed, the station boasts a listener-ship of 700k people a week, taking £10 of these people’s yearly license fee would save the station. I think we all agree that this money is better spent here than on Chris Moyles or Graham Norton’s wages.

For a small label, like ours, 6 Music is somewhere you could actually aspire to get your music played and heard by some real music fans. I don’t think we would have ever got The Answering Machine as the breakfast show song of the week on Radio 1, but it was something attainable on 6 Music.  As James Yuill Tweeted earlier ‘We have to save 6 Music, who else will play my records’.  It gave us hope that we could really connect with people, where as without 6 Music, there would be no point in even trying for Radio 1 plays. We would never have the profile or the money to get close.

The BBC are looking at quality over quantity in the future and this is actually something I would agree with. 6 Music is the quality that should be saved. So should amazing imported shows like Heroes and Mad Men. Their website also might be cut which again is madness. The BBC is something this country should be very proud of but it seems they are just wanting to run it into the ground so we are left with characterless radio DJs and TV that is beyond dull.

I hope we can look back on this blog and realise that it wasn’t needed; that the truth was that 6 Music was always safe but until it is, people who really care for new exciting music need to speak out.