I will miss the BBC when it’s gone. Not that it’s at immediate risk under a more friendly Labour government, which in itself is interesting. After 14 years of Beeb-bashing by the Tories and their many friends in the media, it’s clear that the corporation has bowed to pressure and has lurched uncomfortably away from the neutrality for which it was once famed and at times its news programmes and journalists appear to be auditioning for a gig on the hard right GB News channel. It still does good stuff on telly but it’s BBC radio that I’d miss more than anything else.
The BBC is all about public service broadcasting and that’s what its national radio stations provide. For young people, there’s Radio1, for people who used to listen to Radio 1 but are now too old, there’s Radio 2. If it’s classical music you need, there’s Radio 3. The spoken word is on Radio 4 and for rolling news and sport, there’s Radio Five Live. And there are numerous offshoot, specialist stations and the admittedly greatly diminished local network. But standing above it all stands BBC Radio 6 Music, the perfect station for the person who wants something old, a lot of new, as well as a little borrowed and blue. Quite frankly, I’d find it very hard to live without.
In the last hour, I have heard Foo Fighters, The Clash, Lottery Winners, Kneecap, Roni Size, Pixies, The Jam, Public Service Broadcasting and so much more. I am not saying I loved every track played – although I did find a rare Foo Fighters song I liked a lot, Big Me – but to me the main excitement is the not knowing what comes next. Will it be White Man In Hammersmith Palais or Towards The Dawn? What if I get to hear both? I’m lifted, albeit temporarily, to a different plain.
2.7 million people catch 6 Music every week, which makes it by some distance the most popular digital music station in the UK. Lauren Laverne, Craig Charles, Huw Stephens, Huey Morgan, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie and Guy Garvey’s shows are all must listens to me. In addition, Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone is the most brilliantly weird show on British radio, playing music that you would never find on any other station.
I don’t just like 6 Music: I love it. And that’s despite Mary Ann Hobbs’ dire, amateur hour mid morning show which I switch off as soon as she comes on the air. If they could take the axe to Hobbs, maybe not literally, I’d be a very happy man.
When and if a government comes along and scraps the BBC – and one day, it will likely happen – we will lose the greatest public service broadcaster in the world. We will end up like America and if you ever have the misfortune to sit through a few hours of American TV and radio, you may have a change of heart about getting shot of the Beeb. You’d still have lost of telly to watch and lots of good telly, too, but you’d lose some of the best music on the planet. For new acts in particular the demise of the BBC in general and 6 Music in particular would be a disaster. You might not want to listen to the Monday to Thursday two hours shows, New Music Fix, but where would new acts get their break? On Oldie stations like Greatest Hits, Boom, Absolute and Planet Rock? No chance. They are oldie stations for a reason. New music and anything that’s slightly avante garde and away from the mainstream would have nowhere else to go. Classic FM plays popular classical music but it doesn’t have the sheer depth of choice as Radio 3. And on 6 Music, as with other BBC stations, you don’t have the constant interruptions for adverts. That matters to me.
As I write, I am obviously listening to 6 Music and since I started writing, I’ve heard Fontaines DC, The Flirtations, Friendly Fire and, unfortunately, the dismal Live Forever by that band who are returning for the Pension Pay Pot tour next summer. You win some, you lose some.
When they come for the Beeb, please leave my 6 Music alone because I am obsessed with music and my life would suffer terribly if I lost it. The telly I would miss, but not as much as the radio.
