RR #5 – Leave those Freaks Alone

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At the time of writing, BBC 6Music is scheduled to close and there is fierce opposition. At the time of reading, BBC 6Music will either have been saved or despatched to the annuls of radio history, rapidly forgotten by some and probably overly fondly remembered by others – rather like Nirvana.

Nonetheless, whilst I write, 6Music is still here… just. And so I thought it wise to come in with a quick of the time comment on what’s good about the station, and what I’d happily see shunted off to Absolute, which I never listen to.

In all, it’s about the late night input. In all honesty, nobody really needs a playlist that this week involves such young up-and-coming independent artists such as Blur (EMI formed in 1989), Chemical Brothers (EMI 1991) or Jimi Hendrix (Sony, died in 1970) do they? If you think those are cherry picked bad examples to aid an unpopular argument, the rest of the A list includes major label acts Crystal Castles, Delphic, Massive Attack, MGMT, Mumford & Sons. Indeed, the only independent label acts on the A list are Slow Club (Moshi Moshi) and Vampire Weekend (XL), who, it’s fair to say, are weak arguments for supporting 6Music given that they are also on Radio One’s A list this week and topped the charts on both sides or the Atlantic in January.

So why do I support 6Music? Simply put, there are some amazing shows on the station. Unfortunately they don’t happen in the daytime when 6Music could really be carving out its own impossible to commercialise niche. Put Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone on at breakfast time and listen to some 24-minute long Acid Mother’s Temple track over your Coco Pops, put Craig Charles’ Funk & Soul show on from three till six on weekdays so that the afternoon at work is the most funky time of your life. Saving 6Music is about saving these shows that do put out amazing alternative music, and if it is saved, 6Music should reassess what differentiates it from other stations and act accordingly. In reality, they should be getting 100,000 weirdoes listening in, people who have nowhere else to go for their radio output because it is impossible to commercialise to such a small audience – that’s what the BBC is about, well, that and paying Jonathan Ross the same amount it costs to run 6Music every year.

So if 6Music does close, the BBC will have done those 100,000 weirdoes (me included) a great disservice. We have Stuart Maconie to listen to, and Professor Justin Spear, who makes the Freakier Zone a must listen every week. It’s not much, but it is three hours of radio that, along with Have I Got News for You and David Attenborough, keeps me happy paying my licence fee. Without those few hours a week, there’s literally nothing the BBC provides across all its mediums that I can’t get better elsewhere.

That’s why a review was a good idea. The BBC provides an invaluable service, it serves everyone with content that educates, informs and entertains – even The Bubble does that for a few people without any comic sensibilities. Obviously they can’t serve everyone, and they can’t be seen to be preventing commercial competition, so let rival stations have Chris Moyles, Jonathan Ross and any programme that has Andrew Lloyd Webber sat in a throne. Just let the people who don’t require such grotesque programming have something of their own to enjoy. Keep Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, keep Planet Earth and right now, keep 6Music.