Continued support for 6Music as Bowie, Radiohead and Domino speak out

The protests surrounding the proposed closure of digital radio station 6Music continue to rage on this week, with some high profile names publicly speaking out against the BBC’s decision.

David Bowie issued a message on his website stating: "6music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame."

Writing on Radiohead’s ‘Dead Space Air’ blog, guitarist Ed O’Brien penned an open letter to the BBC, echoing Bowie’s sentiment: “What you have with 6Music is a gem of a radio station, it is doing what no other station in the world does or can possibly do."

Meanwhile, the artists of Independent label Domino issued a collective statement concerning the proposed closure: “BBC 6Music is an extremely important and rare outlet for much of the music that we release on Domino. Indeed we'd argue that the BBC should be making this fantastic station more readily available via the masses of unused FM bandwidth.”

London and New York based Domino is one of the most celebrated Independent labels in the world, with a roster ranging from the Arctic Monkeys to Animal Collective and new signings Villagers, tipped in The Gen’s ‘Super 8’ list at the beginning of this year.

As previously reported by The Gen, the BBC recently announced plans to axe the station, alongside the Asian network as part of a general strategy review.

In related news, it was recently announced that Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has lost his Rock / Heavy metal show on 6Music and also that Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's Radio 2 show is being cut down to three nights a week to make way for a live concert show.

The BBC are currently inviting feedback to the proposals here: SRconsultation@bbc.co.uk. So, don’t just have your say with The Gen, email the BBC and get involved in the debate.

The Save 6Music Facebook campaign is here.