It has been announced that the award-winning BBC radio station 6Music could be saved from being axed, according to a report in The Times newspaper.
Founded in 2002, with an aim to play new music as well as lesser known, non-commercial tracks, BBC 6Music quickly earned critical acclaim for it’s variety in playlists with an array of high-profile presenters joining the station to broadcast their own shows.
However, despite its warm welcome to the airwaves, since earlier this year the station has been earmarked for closure following a BBC strategy review which called for a narrowing of the BBC’s output in attempt to introduce budget cutbacks.
The Corporation’s proposals to cull the station sparked a massive outcry from music fans resulting in the formation of a Facebook campaign – which currently has over a million supporters – as well as a number of protests and marches, being held to prevent the station’s demise.
Now, just when things looked as though the station was doomed, the last few days have seen reports published hinting that BBC 6Music could now be saved from closure. Due to the media-storm circling around the closure of the station, so much word-of-mouth talk about 6Music has seen its listenership figures skyrocket in recent months, raising from 640,000 to more than 1 million. A pretty impressive increase, an increase that hasn’t cost the BBC’s marketing department a penny!
Quite a crafty marketing campaign perhaps? A risky one if it was! With the latest listenership numbers keeping the station afloat for the time being, The Times newspaper reports that BBC 6Music will remain on the airwaves while more research is carried out into it’s worth.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the BBC Trust Michael Lyons, the man who makes the final decision on whether to axe 6Music or not, will soon reveal results of a four-month consultation on the BBC’s strategy with The Times newspaper claiming that the Trust has been “overwhelmed” by the public’s support to keep the station live.
The Times newspaper also quotes one of the station’s broadcasters, who did not want to be named, as arguing that the optimism within the station was growing. He said, "There is a feeling that they will not just kill us straight off."
Save BBC 6Music!
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