6 Music could be saved

[Mr.Ben]

There was an interesting argument on Newsnight last night about why the BBC spends so much money on 'testing grounds' such as BBC 3, Radio 3, 6 et al, when there were 'only a few success stories'.

 

Some bloke (I forget his name as I disagreed with him!) who used to be an editor of the Sun thought that it was disgusting that £110m was spent on Radio 3 each year, and said that by doing away with it mean they could reduce the license fee by a few quid.

 

I thought the following:

 

a) I would rather the BBC wasted money seeing if something works rather than have 23 hours of reality shows each day. Isn't that what we pay them to do - push our culteral boundaries?

 

b) I only tend to watch things on BBC 1 and 2 that have progressed from Radio, onto BBC 3 and then onto BBC 1.

 

c) As for Radio 6 I love it, but I see no reason why the shows mentioned cannot be moved to slots on the other Radio stations that are overused by repeats - (BBC 4 seem to always have loads of repeats unless the proms are on) - But if there are enough people who want it, keep it! - Get rid of 1Xtra, you already cater to people with that taste in music/Chat on Radio 1

 

d) I also think the low audience numbers are down to crap DAB reception more than anything.

 

Don't get me wrong, a review is needed every so often and it is good that the BBC are thinking over there expenditure. Personally I think Alan Hanson should pay his own taxi fare to go and watch football around the country, or buy a cheap minibus, to be driven by Gary Lineker and pick up all the pundits in one go :-)

Edited March 3, 2010 by Mr.Ben

[Tunster]

Typical anti-BBC comments and crazy ideas floating around here (anything BBC and this is the 6 Music thread). I feel that I'm the only one pro-BBC license fee. That's probably because I understand the radio industry and why the BBC Radio Networks needs to survive. Especially niché stations likes 6 Music! I'm 23 and pretty much enjoy content on Radio 1, 2, 5Live and 6! I guess not everyone likes everything the BBC makes, but it's not supposed to be that way.

 

Where do you find specialist music programmes on commercial radio (we're talking about non-BBC services now). Essentially nowhere on the radio spectrum! For the odd shows that do float around, all the big stations owned commercial play old pop-crap 24/7 on a very short playlist. Take no interest in new and upcoming bands, or even can be bothered to play anything outside pop/urban genre.

 

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the Asian Network disappears, but maybe 1Xtra/6Music could be merged into a super station for indie/rock/drum 'n bass/dubstep/urban specialist while Radio 1 keeps merging new/upcoming music with popular stuff. 1Xtra is pretty much merging over into Radio 1 airspace with some of the overnight and specialist stuff appearing on there. (Trevor Nelson, Fabio 'n Grooverider etc)

 

Value for money on all the BBC services? I think so! Where in the world would you find an organisation that brings excellent programming under one roof? No where. Let us please leave Sky for Sports/Movies at which it does best at.

[mattx]

And what ? You need News 24 hours on the BBC ? Or even breakfast news. The internet has changed the way we access news, and we already have news on tap without paying out 100k salaries for people to read the autocue.

 

yeah, that and the other tosh taken together is 'incredible' value.

 

Not everyone has access to the internet - and I would rather watch BBC news [ with it's faults ] than the Fox style Sky News anyday.

Sky and the others don't produce anything near the decent content the BBC offers. The salarys I agree are crazy, just like footballers and high end execs but putting that aside and it's other faults I would rather pay my fee and have a massive range of TV, Sport, News, Music, and the many other services the BBC provide than have to be ripped off by the likes of Sky.

Although I do have to thank them for the Simpsons !!

[Guest Guest]

- and I would rather watch BBC news [ with it's faults ] than the Fox style Sky News anyday.

 

Given the choice i would rather have goneria than clamidia. It doesnt mean either one is a good thing though.

 

The BBC has done some brilliant things. iPlayer is miles ahead of any other streaming media service, and it means i can watch the 1 hour of good content in a week at my leasure.

The educational resources are very good.

And the news website isnt bad - i wont mention the quality of the journalism of late though.

 

TBH when i "have" to pay the licence myself i think ill skip watching the dozen episodes of Topgear i watch on TV in an entire year and save myself £140. I could go to the bloody cinima and watch a dozen movies and it would be better value for money!

 

Not everyone has access to the internet

 

Even fewer have regular access to DAB

Edited March 3, 2010 by Guest

[john]

I've not once listened to 6 Music and fine I will give it a go but its a lot of hype over a couple of stations, the biggest issue is the DAB uptake is poor, our DAB signal here is pants at times, I have a DAB Radio built into my AV Amp and its not bad but a lot of others struggle with it, and I don't have Internet in my Kitchen (well do if my netbooks there etc) but I have a CD player easier etc.

 

I personally am a Radio 1 person, I like a good dose of Chris Moyles and Scott Mills. At work we just have a large library of music we go through when the radio gets boring as we have it on all the time (plus using Internet Radio we can tell when the Internet drops!)

[sidewinder]

I've not once listened to 6 Music and fine I will give it a go but its a lot of hype over a couple of stations

 

Its a lot of hype, because people really enjoy the stations! If they wernt that good then you wouldnt hear any backlash

 

I agree about DAB though...it really hasnt been a success, which is a shame. Its still hard to buy things with a DAB tuner (especially in car) and signal is patchy...my clock radio is currently fine but sometimes it will totally lose the signal depending what part of the room im in.

[synaesthesia]

Could do with some real music being broadcast once in a while - just about everything played on Radio 1 is complete and utter tripe with a few exceptions. Also agree that the likes of Moyles don't do it too much good either.

 

But rather than complain too much about it, I did the proper thing. £100 on a half decent headunit with USB socket. 40gb external HDD permanently plumbed in containing every single CD I've ever bought.

 

Works wonders - however with the travelling I do I like to have the traffic announcements on, and it still annoys me how many times it kicks in just to hear 5 minutes of inane, non-traffic related banter from some gittish DJ.

[LeMarchand]

I agree about DAB though...it really hasnt been a success, which is a shame.

 

I'd say the relatively high cost of the equipment plays a large part in that, along with the frankly hideous design of 90% of DAB players. Who thought that making the latest tech look like it's been crammed into a 1950s case was a good idea?

[john]

OK, I listened to 6 Music today instead of Radio 1 and 2 (after Moyles's Breakfast show as I have to have that on!) and it wasn't that bad really, its a mix of Radio 1 and 2 and a local station that I listen to - Diversity 103.5FM - Home so yeh not too bad at all