Media UK

BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's newest radio stations, launched on March 11, 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years.

It is only available via digital media - DAB radio, the Internet and the various forms of digital television. The station plays "alternative" genres of music, including indie, classic rock, punk, jazz, funk and hip-hop, and generally provides an alternative to the more mainstream, chart oriented Radio 1 and Radio 2. BBC 6 Music was originally set up as a sister station of Radio 2.

As one founding premise of the station, many BBC 6 Music shows make significant use of the extensive BBC session and live music archives belonging to the BBC (including the impressive "Peel Sessions" put together by the late John Peel), which, in a rock context, can go back forty years or more.

There are also intimate live music in-studio sessions with contemporary artists, somewhat reminiscent of "unplugged sessions", on a number of shows, but especially in the 6 Music "hub" pioneered by the presenter Gideon Coe on his morning show, and also right in the broadcast studio on the Evening Sequence show with Tom Robinson.

Another founding premise is that there is a high level of live, on-air interactivity with the listening audience, both active and passive, making use of the modern technological tools available, such as the World Wide Web, text messaging, emails and the like. Listeners can frequently in vivo decide which upcoming songs will or won't be played on shows.

The station's presenters are generally regarded as experts in their musical field.

BBC 6 Music was awarded the Best Digital Radio Station of the year, 2005, by the BT Digital Music Awards (DMA).

Some or all material in this page has been adapted from the BBC 6 Music entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_6_Music), or others, in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org), the free encyclopedia.