Putting Quality First Annual Report and Accounts 2009/2010

On the blogs in recent months Tim Davie, John Tate, Mark Thompson and Caroline Thomson have all defended the original decision to close 6music. Since the BBC Trust dismissed their arguments we have heard not a peep.



What is now clear from the Trust's response is that BBC management wanted to close 6music simply as a sop to commercial radio in the hope that they would get away without making any changes to Radios 1 and 2. There was no real plan for transferring 6music's distinctive content and the value for money and market impact arguments for closing 6music were specious too - which is why the Strategy Review didn't contain a single jot of evidence and why the BBC has been running from its Freedom of Information obligations ever since.



This whole episode has been a disaster. Can the BBC management please return to the blogs to tell us what lessons have been learned?

I'm sorry but I thought we made it quite clear why we wanted to close 6FM.



It was too popular, but not popular enough. Therefore it would suffocate commercial competition if there was any. If we actually had a plan for 6Radio content it might have said something about definately moving it to other radio stations, if at all possible. Our research found that 9 out of 10 TV licence payers actually cared more about the BBC having too many radio stations than multi-million pound budget overspends. So instead of axing any managers that could be accused of not having a clue when it comes to budget management, we suggested axing BBC 6.



In the end the public managed to convince the BBC Trust that we were wrong, so we're now going to write another review and, I can promise you, this one will make even less sense.



There has certainly been no back-tracking and, before you start popping any corks in celebration, don't forget that we're still here and we still don't know our REM from our Elbow.



If you have any further complaints, please feel free to talk to the wall opposite our Portland Place building.



Taxi!

I absolutely agree with APbbforum in post #1. Now that 6 Music has been saved, we can be spared the half-truths and warped logic that dominated the blogs from BBC manangement the last 3 months. I'd be very interested to hear their views on the future of digital radio now going forward.