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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
John Plunkett

BBC 6Music: hit or miss?

Listened to BBC 6Music recently? These people have, and they are not happy. Are you?

The six-year-old national digital radio station has come under attack from listeners on its own messageboards, on Facebook, in emails to MediaGuardian.co.uk and in an online petition which is particulary unhappy with weekday morning DJ George Lamb.

"When 6Music got underway it was like an oasis in the mire of commercial radio and Radio 1," says one correspondent to this website. "6Music was different, intelligent DJs with a love of music they were playing and an eclectic playlist which never failed to please."

Can you feel a "but" coming on?

"The rot seems to have been going on for about a year now with the steady influx of DJs who give the impression that they're more interested in the chat between the music than playing decent tracks."

Over to the station's messageboards, then. "It's been transformed from people who cared about the music they played to people who care about the next step in their careers as media 'celebrities'," opines one contributor. Fair?

Many listeners seem sorry to see Phill Jupitus go from breakfast, replaced by Shaun Keaveny from Xfm, and Gideon Coe switched from morning to be succeeded by George Lamb, whose programme, says another correspondent, "is like listening to a bunch of schoolboys or worse like listening to Radio 1".

I've actually started listening to a bit of Radio 1 again, despite being far too old and probably not welcome, but that's another story.

A dread phrase, I know, but one listener says 6Music is "dumbing down" in pursuit of a bigger audience. Certainly its audience is growing - up to 485,000 listeners in the third quarter of last year - but that's not necessarily dumbing down, it might just be getting better.

The problem is I don't think so. Every time I switch over to 6Music it's like a Vinnie Jones film. I'm gone again in 60 seconds. The reason? Too much inane chatter. Please! Someone! Play a record!

Not all the comments are negative on the message boards, I hasten to add. Just most of them.

Maybe part of the problem is that the station doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it an older version of Radio 1? A funkier Radio 2? Xfm Gold - but with DJs? Or all of those things?

Before it launched, the BBC said the station would "focus on the popular music of the last 30 years. It will draw on the BBC's unique archive of musical performance, concerts, documentaries and interviews." I'm not entirely sure that's how you would describe it today.

Controller Lesley Douglas knows a thing or two about running successful radio stations - she also looks after Radio 2. But the magic appears yet to rub off on its digital sibling. Maybe she should hurry up and find a successor to Ric Blaxhill, 6Music's head of programmes who left last year.

6Music is not without its highlights - what's not to like about Adam and Joe on a Saturday morning, doing very much what they used to do on Xfm? (Yes! It IS Xfm Gold!).

But the last time I tuned in - forgive me, I forget the show - it was like overhearing a group of dull blokes in the pub. Imagine Chris Moyles, but without the humour. Maybe I'm getting old - 36 already - but I thought 6Music was supposed to appeal to people like me.

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