Serious about saving 6Music?

Well it’ll take more than a Twibbon….

Because of all the protestations so far The BBC Trust, who are the people with the ultimate say on what gets closed (and in fact the people that kicked this whole sorry mess off), have said this:

"if we find that there's massive public concern that we need to take account of, then we will go back to the Director-General to rethink the strategy."  - Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the BBC Trust

They will not be able to close 6Music if there is enough additional pressure not to.

IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT SAVING 6MUSIC YOU MUST SEND AN EMAIL TO THE BBC TRUST REGISTERING YOUR COMPLAINT.

There are two ways you can do this.

Either…..

Go to the website the lovely people at 38degrees have set up to make it ridiculously easy to submit your protest in under one minute. Just follow this link.  http://www.38degrees.org.uk/email-the-BBC

Or……

My very limited experience of trying to get people to protest online is that some people are wary of entering an email address anywhere so just send your own email to The BBC Trust directly.

That’s what I did 9 days ago.

The email address is:

Trust.Enquiries@bbc.co.uk

My original email & the response from The Trust are below.

Feel free to cut & paste it into your own email (though it’d be better if you wrote your own text) just please, please, please send one.

If you have a “Save 6Music” twibbon but don’t send an email then you are an appalling person and I hope a tramp is sick on your shoes.

Conversely, if you do send one you rule and I hope you get snogged by Johnny Depp/ R. Patz/ Shakira/ Natalie Portman/ the star shag of your dreams.

Love to your mothers.

Doug

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From: Doug Segal  
Sent: 02 March 2010 17:54
To: Michael Lyons & PA; Richard Tait; Jeremy Peat; Mehmuda Mian; David Liddiment; Janet Lewis-jones; Rotha Johnston; Patricia Hodgson; Alison Hastings; Anthony Fry; Diane Coyle; ZZChitra Bharucha; Trust Enquiries; SR Consultation
Subject: Re: Mooted closure of 6 Music

I'd like to register very strongly my objection to any closure of 6Music

It is absurd to say that commercial stations will fill the void it will leave behind.

Commercial stations are just that - Commercial, they will only produce programming that will maximise listening figures and therefore be appealing to advertisers.

It's for the same reason that commercial stations are failing to drive uptake of digital radio - why invest in a sector when there is scarce advertising revenue to fund it.

Furthermore the history of EVERY advertising funded media channel in this country shows that they have very little interest in broadcasting outside of the conurbations.

The ONLY way to guarantee that, for example, the people of East Anglia get a station that champions non main stream emerging music is if it is provided by a public service broadcaster like the BBC.

Please don't do this.

Regards.

Doug Segal

Their response was:

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From: Trust Enquiries [mailto:Trust.Enquiries@bbc.co.uk]
Sent: 10 March 2010 18:09
To: Doug Segal
Subject: RE: Mooted closure of 6 Music

Thank you for contacting the BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC, with your concerns about the future of the radio station 6Music.

As you may be aware, the proposal to close the station has come from the Director-General Mark Thompson as part of a wide ranging review of the BBC’s future strategy.

In July last year the BBC Trust challenged the Director-General to address questions about the scope of the BBC’s activities, focusing on how the BBC can most effectively deliver its public service mission and meet audience needs as well as deliver value for money. The full strategy, which is now available on the Trust’s website, is the Executive’s response to this challenge.

As part of his proposals to the Trust, which are focused on increasing the quality of the BBC’s output and setting a new direction for the BBC, the Director-General has proposed closing 6Music. The Trust is now consulting on all of these proposals, and we welcome your views.

We will of course take your email as a contribution to our consultation. Should you wish to know more about the overall strategy review and our public consultation, there is more information on the Trust’s website at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/strategy_review/index.shtml

To be clear, a decision on whether or not to close 6Music will need to be made by the BBC Trust and we will consider any formal proposal to do so very carefully.

Our consultation is open until 25 May 2010.

BBC Trust Unit