Axing 6Music Unites Digital Fans

So as it turns out we’re not yet finished with the complete destruction of digital radio in this country! It seems the corporation who’s history began with radio in the 1920’s, and who championed DAB in the 1990’s, are twisting the knife in DAB’s heartland; niche station choice and eroding any appeal or credibility digital radio currently has remaining.

Just before the weekend a story broke about the real posibility of the BBC axing two of it’s niche digital only radio stations, the result; a passionate backlash driven by social media users calling for the stations BBC 6Music and the Asian Network to be saved. I would argue that this is the perfect time to stand up and fight for the future of offline digital radio. The eroding of station choice seems to have caused the kind of backlash that broadcasting Radio 3 in mono at 96kbps could never have achieved.

You can save 6 Music and thus Digital Radio Switchover by

• Taking a look at the station website and seeing if it’s your thing?
• Adding a twibbon to your twitter avatar
• Joining the Facebook group
• Signing the Petition
• Complaining online to the BBC
• Complaining online to the Audience Council
• Writing to your MP
• Writing to The House of Lords Digital Switchover Committee
• Asking your friends to buy a “DAB+ upgradable radio” if in the market for a radio

Why axing 6Music could kill DAB (and DAB+) radio sales!
Of course we have to ask why even bother buying a digital radio if there are no new stations that can only be listened to on digital, a lot of people on the Save 6 Music Facebook group have said the station was the only reason they brought a digital radio. This next point is a huge warning that should alarm the likes of PURE who make most of the digital radios on sale in the UK. Why kill a station such as 6Music that appeals to people most likely to buy a digital radio, while keeping a station such as 1Xtra, which attracts an audience never likely to buy a digital radio because they’ve got the iPlayer on their Playstation. This story is FULL of own goals by the BBC.

A lot of people on the Save 6 Music Facebook group have said the station was the only reason they brought a digital radio.

Why is it happening?
The BBC have been told by the future incoming government which seems to be of the blue variety that they are too big, and present barriers to commercial competition. Mainly this criticism is focused on online services and revolves around local newspapers trying to launch online video services for some reason, I would suggest sarcastically this is nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch or backing the incoming government in the dumbing down of the BBC to the kind of quality content on offer from commercial broadcasters. Yeah and I’m the pope ……. true story!

Ed Vaizey Shadow Cultural Secretary, who last week welcomed the BBC’s package of cuts, has now changed his tune, calling for the digital radio station 6 Music to be saved.

Then again, it looks like some HQ buildings went massively over budget, and not forgetting the BBC are expected to shoulder the cost of £20m worth of DAB transmitters for an undetermined amount of time, 10 years would be £200m.

Why is 6Music so important?
BBC 6 Music, began as a solid brand for quality, left-field and alternative music, which also aimed to and has broken virtually unknown artists into the industry. It backs niche but highly popular music festivals like Summer Sundae in Leicester which has gone on with the large niche broadcasting reach of 6Music to become loved as “Glastonburys grandson”. 6Music filled a gap and this is what digital radio was about, niches, choice and quality.

6Music filled a gap and this is what digital radio was about, niches

But the failure of DAB to grow as a platform (its growth has recently declined) has lead to marginal audiences that are so low in number that the stations, even national stations cannot be viable. Indeed the iPlayer may deliver more listeners to radio, through its listen again services, which of course can’t be carried on DAB. Stations come and go on DAB, it seems to be the crematorium of radio, a place where stations go to die. However as demonstrated by this backlash 6Music has a loyal listener base and many people seem to agree it is a one of its kind station in the cultural vacum that is our media landscape at the moment. It’s axing has become more than just the loss of a station, it’s a loss of a safe heaven away from the drivel aimed at Radio One’s audience and more importantly is exactly what we don’t need to be happening if we want to push more listeners to digital radio.

Loosing prestige stations on the eve of switchover?
In one word, madness. On one hand you’ve got the government scrambling to legislate through the Digital Economy Bill, a switchover to digital radio ASAP and on the other hand you’ve got broadcasters falling over themselves to run on DAB faster than savers ran on Northern Rock in 2007. Indeed some broadcasters like 4Digital, haven’t even got to the stage of opening current accounts with DAB Digital Radio because it’s not a viable technical platform for 4Digitals service features, not withstanding a lack of listener numbers and an install base in homes, cars and workplaces needed to attract advertising revenue.

DAB is eating stations for lunch while Government are waving a magic wond to switch to digital by 2015! Madness!

Why saving 6Music could help move us to DAB+
We now have STRONG interest in digital radio, let’s use it to admit DAB is crap and that we are going to push on with DAB+, which is “HD for Radio”. I would at this point begin wondering if in fact people do want to kill DAB digital radio on purpose, particulary the people who forced it down our throats too early on, but if we are to move to digital why take away reasons for people to do so? Oh yeah this is true too; DAB is THE reason why broadcasting radio is now so expensive, with dual transmission costs to stay on FM and DAB! It’s not expensive because of FM, and the BBC got themselves into this mess by backing DAB so for now would it be better to do away with digital alltogther? No!

Could we have a “Red Button for Radio”?
Square one might not be a bad place to go back to, we could push on with digital switchover but only if we keep stations like 6Music and in the background as PURE are doing, create “HD Ready Radios”, ready to take on DAB+ and add features such as surround sound, or 5 channel sports stations, where you can access a commentary menu on the radio and hop between alternative live events on the same station.

Red Button pushed Digital TV forward, what could radio provide on a “magic button”?

The DAB only sets would be useless going forward which means they have no value, thus price points come down for people who want to go digital without the cost and those who don;t want red button features. We could figure out how to get traffic alerts in car DAB+ radios and have a plan to shutdown the DAB network before the BBC have to spend £200m on the remaining 10% national coverage issue, plus tripple transmission on FM, DAB and DAB+ and Freeview, Freesat, Online, Sky and all the rest of it.

What’s next for the 6Music saga?
Tuesday, Mark Thompson is expected to clarify what the hell is going on and make proposals to the BBC Trust. If they decide to pull those stations from Digital Radio because the Conservatives think they are too big (don’t read too much into that), then we could see a disorderly destruction of demand for digital radios. I might add though that the Shadow Cultural Secetary never knew what 6Music was until the voters became unhappy, so can they be trusted? Whereas the House of Lords are litterally and you can see this for yourself online, they are banging their heads against a brick wall with common sense about moving to DAB+. It’s not often you’ll see politicians which such a good grasp of the technical aspects of a digital broadcast platform, but EVEN the Lords know that DAB+ is the future.

6Music could be brought by Absolute Radio and feature adverts, or artists only backed by the stations commercial interests!

Absolute Radio, formally Virgin Radio have expressed an interest in buying 6Music and keeping it branded as 6Music. This could be a good thing if the other option was to see 6Music go silent; Absolute seem to have a good grasp of how to make digital radio work, which is ironic because digital radio was always the BBC’s plaything. Influential people from the music industry have stepped up in defence of 6Music and in favour of keeping it as a vital grass roots of the industry. Whatever happens over the next few weeks, in fact in the wider context, this year could make or break digital radio switch over. There seems to be no money, little understanding and a desire to write it off as a technical and cultural disaster, some that was good while it lasted. OR we could finally see in 2010 finally some concerted action to save radio from the iPlayer! In fact getting rid of the iPlayer live streams could also help drive sales of radio sets.

One final thought, this was the promise of DAB in 1997
How it all looked so good back then, the irony of Broadcasting House in this clip (which has now nearly 1bn spend on refurb) isn’t lost on me and I suspect it wouldn’t be lost on DG Mark Thompson either! Did offline radio kill itself by never advancing faster than online radio?

Jez Nelson and Peter Snow discussing DAB in 1997 on Tomorrows World.

Posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010