Vote of confidence

I might have to eat my hat, having declared not so long ago that BBC 6 Music would not be much missed if it were cut from the schedules. Recent audience figures from Rajar (Radio Joint Audience Research) have revealed a huge jump in listeners in fewer than three months from just over 600,000 to one million and rising. It’s an astonishing vote of confidence for the station, not to say a convincing majority, won by the ardent campaigning of its DJs and followers, including our own Marcus Berkmann and a cohort of Spectator bloggers. A coalition with Five Extra or even One Extra should not now be necessary.

Coincidentally, the station’s most celebrated DJ, Jarvis Cocker, in the same week won a coveted Sony Award as the Rising Star of the radio world. Dutifully, I tuned in to his two-hour show on Sunday afternoon, described in Radio Times as ‘hip music and thoughts’.