Adam Buxton fights for 6 Music

We have a thing for Adam Buxton. Not only does he have a really nice face, he also can be very humorous on the radio (don't mention The Persuasionists). So when we heard that the BBC was thinking of shutting down 6 Music, there was only one person we wanted to talk to. And, luckily for us, he was inclined to give us 15 minutes of his time.

How are you doing? You’re in the studio we understand?

I’m getting ready for a show called Bug which is a show I do at the BFI on the South Bank. We show music videos and I sort of talk boll*cks in between.

What kind of boll*cks?

Amazing gold boll*cks. I’m obsessed with YouTube comments. I look at a lot of the comments on the videos we show and guide people through them. And make them feel less frightened.

We want to talk to you about 6 Music and the sad situation there. Public support has been huge, has this surprised you?

I don’t think it’s surprising, because I’ve been aware for a while that the people who listen to 6 Music and like 6 Music are a very unusually pro-active and intelligent group. I’ve never really experienced interaction with listeners that’s been as overwhelming and enjoyable as it has been at 6 Music. Me and Joe used to do a show at Xfm and we’ve worked at various places before, but the whole kind of interaction with the audience at 6 Music transformed our show into something quite different and made it reasonably successful.

How about in person? Have people come up to you to share their feelings?

Well, I live in the middle of nowhere really, so I don’t really see people. But people have been in touch via my YouTube channel and left some nice messages. But there does seem to be an overwhelming amount of support. The thing is that people are really passionate about 6 Music, because they feel in the same way that people sometimes feel about their favourite albums, that it’s something they own almost, it’s a part of their lives that they really feel protective towards. In the same way that if you like a band and then suddenly everyone likes them and they go overground, they don’t really mean the same thing to you any more. It’s a culty thing. It’s something that people really feel strongly about.

How realistic do you think its chances of survival are?

Well I suppose, being a realist, it’s going to happen, isn’t it? But it’s a shame isn’t it. I would be very impressed if the BBC recapitulated, and the BBC Trust at least have implied that they might if the public outcry was sufficient, if they felt that they’d misjudged the situation. So even the fact that the chairman of the trust has said that is encouraging. It’d be very depressing to feel that they were just going to plough ahead and do it regardless of what people thought. After all, they made a lot of changes and suspended and sacked a few people on the back of the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand debacle, and that was because of the public outcry. If nobody had said anything about that, it would’ve passed completely unnoticed. I think there’s a lot of power in the public when the BBC is caught on the back foot, then they think “Sh*t, we don’t want to upset anybody”, and if they feel that they’ve done something wrong, then they bend over backwards to make up for it and insulate themselves from criticism. But I think that when it’s something like this is it’s a little less clear cut. And despite the fact that there might be many more thousands of people demanding that 6 Music and the other stations are not closed, I think perhaps it won’t make a difference.

So it’s like they’ve got selective hearing? They’ll listen when it suits them, perhaps?

Yeah, I think that’s the worry. But I mean, people are really making themselves quite clear and they understand why the BBC thought they had to do this, but I think they think it’s misguided in this case.

Continued...