BBC 6 Music

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to express my distress and strong objection to the BBC's proposal to close 6Music.

For several years 6music has been the only radio station available in this country to champion and cherish a wide variety of new and old music outside of the commercial mainstream. It is the only radio station that caters for an intelligent, discerning adult market who have grown up with pop culture and continue to engage with and be fascinated by it. This large and constantly growing audience is not catered for by the commercial pop oriented Radio 1, the more mainstream Radio 2 nor any of the ad saturated, playlist restricted independent stations. This audience is the main demographic for album sales and live music attendance in this country and to remove this much loved outlet for a wide variety of otherwise underrepresented music would be potentially damaging for the music industry in this country; particularly so for for the small, independent and new labels, bands, promoters and musicians that 6music (and 6music alone on the BBC) champions.

As a teen interested in pop music I listened to Radio 1 and it's various specialist late night shows including John Peel, Tommy Vance and Andy Kershaw). Like millions of others who care about music, as I grew up and my tastes matured and widened I sought out new and old music that interested me, music that was not part of Radio 1 or any other BBC station's remit.

London's XFM provided well for this need until the late 90s when the station was acquired by Capital and the distinct style-oriented shows were replaced with a generic daytime playlist and much more youth oriented direction.

GLR was a poor substitute for a short time until it too was re-branded as BBC London and became an all-talk station . This left no pop music station aimed at the discerning music fan available in London on the on the BBC otherwise. For nearly 10 years there was no contemporary radio worth listening to this country.

I bought digital radio and stared paying my licence fee specifically to be able to receive 6music and have been grateful for it's existence ever since.

6Music stands alone in current radio programming as an oasis of rare diversity. It is cherished by hundreds of thousands of music fans as a life raft of sanity and variety in our homogenous, lowest common denominator and relentlessly mediocre pop culture. It is entertaining, educational, intelligent and inclusive. Not a day goes by that I don't hear something new or old that I've never heard before and that makes me want to either hear it again, go to a show or buy the record.

Please don't close 6music. It's the only station on the BBC I'm aware of who's audience is not catered for elsewhere. Should 6Music be scrapped will cease to pay my licence fee.

Regards,

Dooks.

Bit long and waffly but the more I think about it the more I realise how much 6Music is a part of my life.