Maltpress

An open letter to the BBC Trust

I just sent the following email to the BBC Trust (srconsultation@bbc.co.uk) in order to protest about the planned closure of 6Music. I didn’t include the Asian Network because it’s less relevant to me – I like Bobby Friction but don’t really listen to it. However, I’m sure there are many people out there who would feel the same about that station as I do about 6Music. If you do, please email the Trust.

Dear sir/madam,

I understand, from online sources, that the decision to axe 6Music and The Asian Network from the BBC is not final until approved by the BBC Trust, so I thought I would email you to tell you a bit about me and 6Music.

I first heard 6Music online during a very boring day at work. I hated my job and was planning to leave to start freelancing. I didn’t like my stuffy office, where we couldn’t have a radio, and even listening to music online when working late was frowned upon (but still done). It was Nemone I first heard: she played Maximo Park, I think, and Nirvana. Certainly Nirvana. I remember updating my Facebook status to tell people I’d suddenly discovered this great, almost secret radio station, and I vowed at that point to buy a DAB radio just for 6Music as soon as I got my first cheque from freelancing.

I still have that DAB radio and the only station I’ve bothered to save as a preset is 6Music. I have another DAB radio I bought specifically so I could listen to 6Music in my bedroom.

Anyway, I left that job and started freelancing and 6Music was a big part of that. I quickly found out via call-ins and emails read out that many of the listeners were just like me; freelancers, designers, writers, all wanting intelligent talk about new music from people who really cared about it. Gideon Coe was a revelation. I discovered some great new music. I bought albums on the strength of recommendations from the DJs. I emailed in. I really got involved and I really felt part of a community of like-minded listeners. Before the whole competition saga, I won a couple of albums.

One day I met a girl and introduced her to 6Music and, soppy as it is, we dedicated a couple of songs to each other via Nemone. Eventually she moved home to Australia, but 6Music was still there – she’d listen to the overnight shows and email in, and I’d use listen again to hear her emails and the songs she asked for. I’d love to say that after this we got married, but we didn’t; that shouldn’t detract from how much the station meant to us, or to me, or to thousands of other people with similar stories to tell. When things didn’t work out, 6Music helped me through that.

Some days I’d swear the DJs were looking through my CD collection at night when putting their playlists together, then throwing in more things they thought I’d like. 6Music has been better than any online service for suggesting music I’d never normally hear.

It’s also given me a way to connect to new people. I used online dating this year and you’d be amazed how many people ask questions about your listening habits when sending out those tentative first emails. I always knew I’d get on with people who liked 6Music (except, perhaps, George Lamb fans, but that’s another story…); a shared love of Adam & Joe pretty much guaranteed a reply. Now I’ve met someone and I’m happy and 6Music reflects that as well.

I took time out from freelancing to work in an office last year and 6Music was the thing I missed most. It became my weekend treat rather than a constant; Adam & Joe were a great start to the weekend, and The Freak Zone – a fairly recent discovery for me – the perfect end. Now I’m returning to freelancing and I was – until today – very excited that I can listen to Lauren Laverne every day. She’s one of the best DJs I’ve ever heard. Up there with Peel and Lamacq for me. 6Music over the last couple of months has become better than I ever imagined. Jarvis Cocker on a Sunday? It’s sublime.

It’s also the sort of thing that competitors wouldn’t do. The 6Music audience aren’t the sort to buy things from radio adverts so there’s no revenue from us. We rail against bland commercial radio. Without 6Music we fall back on community radio, US internet radio – if we can get it – and online services like Last.FM and Spotify. But they’re not the same. The quality is poor. There are no DJs on Last.FM. They don’t throw the sort of curve-balls a real person would do.

I think we’d pay subscriptions for 6Music if we could. If that’s what it took to save it. I’d be more than happy to. Hell, I bought two DAB radios for it, and I’ve considered another so I can listen in the car.

The thing is, I don’t watch TV very much. Maybe an hour a week, on average. I think BBC3 is a waste of time and money – I’d rather have fewer stations and higher quality output (is “Marry, Snog, Avoid” *really* more important than such a high quality radio station?), especially considering BBC3 runs overnight with nothing but repeats. Fewer US imports will be good, especially as most are so easily available on DVD or online nowadays. There are other things I’d want you to drop before 6Music – but there will be people arguing the case for you to save these too. There’s no way everyone can be happy, I know that. But dropping 6Music feels so wrong to me. It has so much more loyalty than other BBC output. Commercialise it. Stop giving it away for free overseas. Charge for the Adam & Joe podcast. Don’t broadcast past midnight. Please, God, just stop Three Pints of Lager. More men in suits on Doctor Who and less CGI. Think of all the different ways an organisation like the BBC can increase its commercial viability without compromising output; people are willing to pay extra for extra services and that must count for something. There is no brand in the world like the BBC, and yet it’s not being capitalised on. Instead you’re considering homogenising your output to a terrible, populist, lowest common denominator soup, leaving those of us who really care floundering around looking for something to speak to us.

Perhaps that’s a good thing – perhaps we’ll get more involved in community radio projects or local art and performance. Maybe we’ll put our own club nights on to recreate the feeling of 6Music. Perhaps we’ll stop making any use of the BBC and sell our TVs and cancel our license fees because if you can’t give us output we want on a (relatively) low-cost radio station, why should we ever think you’ll serve our needs on TV?

Or maybe we’ll just feel very sad and very disenfranchised by the BBC and realise that being smart and different and passionate and open gets us no-where, and we’ll give in to the constant “talent” shows and insipid drama.

Who knows.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Maltpress

[edit: corrected email address for consultation responses]