Report: Planet Rock Hopes To Sign Up BRUCE DICKINSON
March 12, 2010, 14 years ago
John Plunkett from Guardian.co.uk is reporting:
Planet Rock owner Malcolm Bluemel wants to hire outgoing BBC 6 Music DJ Bruce Dickinson – and hopes his loss-making digital station will break even by the end of this year.
He has held talks with the IRON MAIDEN frontman, who will present his last 6 Music show in April after eight years on the BBC digital station. 6 Music is set to close at the end of 2011 under controversial proposals put forward by BBC director general Mark Thompson.
Bluemel, who rescued Planet Rock after its former owner GCap Media said it was going to close the station, said he was "disappointed" at the prospect of 6 Music's demise.
"It's not a good thing for digital radio to have it close," said Bluemel, whose station has an average weekly reach of 698,000 listeners, marginally ahead of 6 Music, which had 695,000 in the last three months of 2009.
But he described the station's annual budget of £9m in 2008-09, including £6.5m on content, as "ridiculous".
"We could run the station on a quarter of that budget. There is no reason to kill 6 Music. They should just kill some of the cost. It is a ridiculous amount of money to run a station that size," Bluemel said.
Read more here.
