6 Music will die, or rather, be murdered in the very near future...As was widely reported yesterday in a report located in Murdoch-rag The Times, 6 Music along with the Asian Network is likely to be culled. While being at odds with an early reports from the BBC Trust where it was noted that 6 Music was exactly the kind of non-commercial programming the BBC should be engaged with - a later report drawn up by David Cameron-associate John Tate has identified these areas as ones to go. & as we all know, if you're in the public sector (as I am for my comedy day-job), we all have to instil a bunch of mass cuts and enjoy their effect. If only the public sector was the Royal Bank of Scotland...

The usual tabloid/Murdoch-based whining about the Licence Fee mostly directed at folk like Jonathan Ross has been the norm the last few years - I've always felt it fine to pay since it funds a lot of things I like...and provides lots for everyone else too.

Like the NHS, the BBC was designed for all - sadly both debased by Tory/New Labour-approaches through a flawed management approach. BBC-wise I listen to Radio 4 most days, sometimes a spot of Radio 3, a bit of Radio 2 (Radcliffe & Maconie, Ross), the World Service (at night), and 6 Music. Viewing wise, I used to watch lots of BBC2, but sadly that's become too commercial, so really am a BBC4 type of person.

I'm not too keen on the commercial endeavours of the BBC and the way that blanket format shows similar to that of their rivals have become the norm - I mean, do we have to have a dancing/talent programme on all year round? Why should rich Tory turds like Andrew Lloyd-Webber get to plug their shows on BBC1 for several months - maybe the BBC should get a royalty cut of these shows which could be redirected back into non-commercial programming? Likewise, a royalty cut for all those caring pop artists who turn up plugging their latest single on Comic Relief and Children in Need - or are they just flogging records off the back of staving children and related woes?

Radio 1 exists - I haven't listened to it since the late 90's when Marc & Lard were the norm for my student self - it seems far too commercial these days, a bizarre non-BBC output interlaced with a commercial-showbiz world. Perhaps it should be flogged to the private sector - I find it bizarre that the public have to pay for this trivial output, but it's all OK as it finds an audience (where would we be without the semi-retarded comedy albums of Chris Moyles?).

Look at Radio 1 though - presenters include terminally chirpy Jo Whiley (whose husband is often alleged to have industry connections that intersect with Radio 1), non-entity Edith Bowman, 90's has-been Sarah Cox, Top of the Pops' killers Fearne Cottons and Reggie Yates (anyone who has witnessed Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe might recall the inane interview programme Cotton made with Peaches Geldof - she's no Joan Bakewell...), and Skype-wanker Vernon Kay.

There is a later night output that maybe I should check out, though have the feeling it's very yoof and probably not in the spirit of Peel. Perhaps folk like Annie Mac, Annie Nightingale (I grew up on her Sunday requests show, almost as important as Peel), and Rob de Bank would make more sense moving to a reinvigorated 6 Music? Oh, and the biggest Radio 1 figure appears to be the Hogarthian gimp Chris Moyles who has diluted the prior crapness of earlier Radio 1 figures such as Chris Evans and Steve Wright to new lows. Perhaps this chap could be paid a bit less and hopefully take it as a cue to go and make bad radio for the masses in the private sector?

They're also getting rid of imports like Mad Men and The Wire, which is odd as a struggling Channel 4 is starting to get more of these imports again - very mixed signals. This doesn't matter so much as these programmes can be enjoyed in DVD sets and really, what were the BBC thinking getting The Wire several years after it's been shown on other channels and available cheaply on DVD and then sticking it in a graveyard slot on BBC2? A severe waste of money that...

Back to the TV, which is a place where cuts can be made - in an amusing encounter with a Lord (Foulkes) relating to the expenses scandal, a BBC News-24 presenter (Carrie Grace) revealed she got paid 92 grand per annum. While the Lord would probably make more through extra-curricular jobs and connections, and getting paid to attend etc I find it hard to justify a wage of 92 grand to read the news for a few hours. I loathe the rolling news drivel anyway, infotainment at its worst - so perhaps a lot of money could be saved by killing this channel, which you will only want to watch if needing permanent distraction? If I want the news, I can look at the BBC website, or wait for the hourly news on its radio channels, or watch the standard news programmes...I don't need rolling TV news just in the hope I can watch Saddam-swing or the Twin Towers fall.

Even worse is BBC3 which came out of BBC Choice in 2003 - BBC Choice had been heavily criticised and the then Culture secretary Tessa Jowell came out with some cobblers that this would be quality programming. A few commercial successes apart - I'm thinking of BBC1 associated programmes like Dr Who, Gavin & Stacey, Torchwood - the output of this channel has been execrable. The one good programme was Monkey Dust, which probably wouldn't be made by BBC3 these days as far too intellectual. Of course, American Dad and the superior Family Guy are great - but these can be seen easily and cheaply in DVD sets that sell loads. Why bother to buy these programmes in for BBC 3 - especially when Mad Men may not be taken up after its current season?

BBC3's output is more known for being thick-as-shit crap cobbled together from a creative force of empty headed souls who give conformity a bad name. Endless series of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (which made Men Behaving Badly seem like Heimat), Tittybangbang, Horne & Corden, Harper's Island, Anthea Turner: The Perfect Housewife, Lily Allen & Friends, Most Annoying People, Being Human, Material Girl, a Muse gig to publicise their latest LP, and many other wastes of space I wouldn't give the time of day to. Add to that repeats of popular programmes from BBC1 and 2 - Dr Who ,Eastenders, Heroes, Holby City, Live at the Apollo, Match of the Day, Top Gear, Torchwood etc BBC3 is most unimpressive.

And that's before we get to the fact most of its programming comprises lame reductions of reality And talent show formats - step forward Snog Marry Avoid? , The Real Hustle: Undercover, Last Man/Woman Standing, Dancing on Wheels, Undercover Princes/Princesses, Freaky Eaters, Britain's Really Disgusting Food, Famous Rich and Homeless, Hotter Than My Daughter, Nicola Roberts: The Truth About Tanning, The World's Toughest Driving Tests, To Buy or Not to Buy, Young Butcher/Chef/Hairdresser of the Year, Addicted to Boob Jobs, Amy: My Body for Bucks, Bashing Booze Birds, Baby Borrowers, Can Fat Teens Hunt?, Claire Richards: My Big Fat Wedding, Dog Borstal, Fat Boy to Slim, I Believe in Ghosts: Joe Swash , I Hate My Bald Head, Jess: My New Face, Katie Price: The Jordan Years, Kill It Cook It Eat It, Kirsten's Topless Ambition, Make My Body Younger, Natalie Cassidy's Diet Secrets/Real Britain, Pissed and Pregnant, Should I Smoke Dope?, My Breasts and I etc - A long-list that demonstrates the puerile output of BBC3 the last seven years - regardless of bullshit about catering for a youth-demographic or being educational . 6 Music is far from perfect currently, but does it have an output as bad as the majority of BBC3's output? And how much are idiots like Danny Dyer and Joe Swash being paid to make programmes about their silly beliefs? The notion that these 600 million quid cuts will be made in order to invest in "higher quality content" is bizarre when you realise that BBC3 will not be touched as 6 Music is culled.

6 Music isn't perfect, there's lots I don't like about it - not sure why big acts like Coldplay, Oasis, Radiohead, U2 etc ever feature on this station as they’re far into the mainstream. Similarly, why are mainstream acts being played on 6 Music at all? - perhaps there should be a policy where bands who have sold a certain number of records should not be played, since they would get played elsewhere already.

6 Music should really be championing the obscure, underground acts, as well as playing music from new bands. Something as effective, if not more so, than the exaggerated influence of the mobius strip of new music on My Space (which didn't really make Lily Allen or the Artic Monkeys).

There are some annoying presenters, Northern sub-stand up comic types and then there's George Lamb, who really should fuck off and join Dermot O'Leary and other bad TV presenters of bad TV shows elsewhere. Again, I don't understand why 6 Music would want folk like this who are commercially minded and following the satanic path of Brand, Evans And Moyles. And the music gossip and that BBC3 approach to entertainment really should be excised from this station.

I've liked some of the celeb presenters and heard some great music played by such folk as Jarvis Cocker, Guy Garvey, and Huey Morgan - where else would you hear obscure psych-rock, a cult act like Shearwater, or have an interview with Todd Rundgren regarding A Wizard, A True Star?

Marc Riley is OK, though I am aware that he often has similar guests and therefore a similar show to his old mucker Radcliffe with Maconie on Radio 2. Still it was great to be cooking the other week as Riley played new bands and an old classic from the Groundhogs. Some great session material is played - another plus to many shows on 6 Music. There's plenty of good and interesting programmes on 6 Music - the treasure trove of Peel Sessions (that the BBC could sell for download and generate revenue from), Tom Robinson playing new acts, Bruce Dickinson's Rock Show, Dave Peace's Dance Classics, Craig Charles' Funk And Soul Classics, Don Letts, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne, Collins And Herring, Gideon Coe etc. When 6 Music is about the music and not some piddle poor comedy, entertainment and gossip based dreck to appease some focus-group directive it's working as it should.

There were two other shows I am very fond of, the first was the Queens of Noise old Sunday Listener request show - I liked this as it was close to Annie Nightingale's old request show on Radio 1 Sundays in the 80's. Each week a listener would come in and offer up a selection of their faves, something that was always entertaining and sadly something I almost did...till they cancelled the show (I really should have accepted the offer to be on it, though I did have a gig-clash when offered it).

The other show I'm very fond of and never miss is Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone - a programme sadly culled of half-an-hour a few years ago and now looking to be culled completely if this report is to be believed. The Freak Zone has been a staple of my radio listening the last few years and is always a joy each Sunday as Maconie offers up an eclectic selection of oddess past and present - from glitchy electronica to psych-folk to free jazz to avant classical music and beyond.

The Freak Zone is exactly the kind of show that John Peel used to make and got celebrated for when he sadly passed on several years ago. Mark Thompson and these business-heads may as well go and take a piss on Ravenscroft's grave if they want to erase the few examples of Peel's legacy in BBC Radio. Maconie's programme with the arcane delights of Prof. Spear’s University of the Strange is fantastic stuff and exactly the kind of non-commercial programming there should be more of across the BBC. Cos that's what the licence fee is for (though amusingly, each week listening to the Freak Zone I invariably end up buying several things on-line I hear). Where else can you hear material like this and isn't that an asset? I know that small indie labels and obscure artists and those reissuing the obscure do well from it (e.g. Ghost Box Recordings, Trunk Records) - or can we only imagine a world where temporary pop exists?

The jokes about 6 Music's audience figures were mildly amusing at first, then again, those making them are on channels that aren't exactly doing that well themselves - we're far from Eastenders and Morecombe and Wise mesmerising multi-millions these days. I find it very reductive that audience figures are the sole justification for something - though it's also amusing that the late Dennis Potter predicted this all in his final interviews. Let's cast our minds back to John Reith (the BBC from 1922 to 1938) and recall the values that were non-commercial, just like those of the founding NHS.

Reithianism distinguishes from the free-market concept, the notions of artistic merit, a multiplicity of viewpoints, and public service broadcasting. Sounds like 6 Music to me, We'll note the free market failed in a big ass way the last few years and had to be bailed out by the public - I'd rather put my money into the BBC commercial/non-commercial than arms companies or High Street banks. Then again, perhaps John Tate could piss on Reith's grave at the same time as Thompson takes a slash on Peel’s - maybe BBC3 could get a programme out of that?

Mass appeal and audience stats are not the sole means of measuring anything - the success of the ATP festivals or something like the Supersonic festival in Birmingham demonstrates that the alternative can find a large audience who turn up, buy records etc. It's that alternative 6 Music should focus on and be for. If the alternative is not represented in BBC Radio, then what choice is there? It's ironic considering most politicians always like to jabber about choice when electioneering - the death of 6 Music would reduce that choice and make me wonder if I even need to watch BBC TV.

Maybe all of this is leading up to the inevitable death of the licence fee - the BBC can then be just like all the other channels I hardly ever watch. If 6 Music goes, then I'd be happy for the licence fee to go and the complete dismantlement of the BBC. I can do something else with my time and can take the message that my attention is not warranted as it isn't the majority.

Ironic that an associate of Dave 'Down with the kids' Cameron is associated with this report - Cameron is very likely to be the next Prime Minister (god help us...) and is often going for hip points when raving about Radiohead and The Smiths. Where does he think the next Radiohead or Smiths would come from? Record companies aren't really developing new bands these days, so an outlet like 6 Music would be ideal to expose a new band that may very well become a Radiohead...or not.

It means a death or limiting of culture - the cult a niche that a knowing few would be aware of and have access to and the notion that you could only go on an X-Factor type show to attain success. There should be a place where new acts can get played - not everyone gets to be picked out like Ellie Goulding or Florence And the Machine and taken up by major labels, flogged to the masses etc. Only those acts with a mass of subtle pluggers and compliant media will exist - it's enough to make me want to stop listening to new music and get into classical music, at least Radio 3 offer music for that audience. Which makes me think that I don't really listen to the Proms, but I'm glad the BBC broadcast it; shouldn't the same ethos be applied to 6 Music?

The mentality here is anti-culture and merely pro-product - populism and mass appeal are all very well, but they're not everything. I'm wondering what the point of the digital radio is if a station like 6 Music goes - I guess I can post mine to Cameron, perhaps he'll think it's a bomb or something? 6 Music needs to be saved - I can understand it having to undergo some changes, but to delete it completely seems to be antithetical to the Reithian concepts that should underline the BBC's output. There are petitions and on-line groups and you can always write to your M.P/piss in the wind. The closure of 6 Music will be a travesty, though I'm sure without it I can learn to love Chris Moyles and unravel the true appeal of Hotter Than My Daughter?

Meanwhile, the two Johns turn in their grave...the question is who will win out - Peel And Reith or those dubious Market Forces?