Podnews and Radioland publisher James Cridland used to tell a joke in his state-of-radio presentations along the lines of how BBC’s Radio 6 Music‘s listenership was usually “guys in their late 30s and early 40s with beards and stripey shirts,” at which point the audience was meant to notice what he was wearing.
Over time, I came to realize that 6 Music had a slightly more robust following among industry people. I last wrote about it two years ago before running into somebody at a convention who had heard the exact segment I’d monitored. I know of at least one major-market American PD who loves 6 Music, even while programming a successful station that is its complete mainstream opposite.
Last time, I wrote about 6 Music because the BBC’s Lorna Clarke was coming to speak at Radiodays North America. This year, head of music Samantha Moy is one of the featured speakers at RDNA, held May 5-6 in Toronto. Moy will be interviewed by Tom Power, host of CBC Radio One’s daily arts-and-entertainment show Q, on “Why Curated Music Can Still Win.” That prompted a visit to 6 Music but also to its Canadian counterpart, CBC Music.
On Monday, 6 Music weekend mix-show host Nimone was filling in for Lauren Laverne, which could have explained a noticeable presence of music that ticks both EDM and indie boxes. In the spirit of the Oscars the night before, she was soliciting listener suggestions for songs from nominated movies from any year. (Suggestions that didn’t make the cut included Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” from Trainspotting, and a Des’ree song from Romeo and Juliet,)
This is 6 Music at 10 a.m., March 16
- Big Audio Dynamite, “Bottom Line”
- Avalon Emerson, “Jupiter and Mars”
- Cassius, “Feeling for You”
- Dan McKie, “Ginger Sax”
- Liv.e, “Wild Animals”
- Dove Ellis, “Heaven Has No Wings”
- Aldous Harding, “One Stop”
- James Blake, “Trying Times”
- Pixies, “Where Is My Mind?” — the song that Fight Club made into the band’s signature kicked off the 6 of the Best feature
- Q Lazzarus, “Goodbye Horses” — from Silence of the Lambs (and somehow a song still heard on Classic Hits radio in Mexico)
- Bruce Springsteen, “Streets of Philadelphia”
- Cream, “Sunshine of Your Love” — tied to its placement in Goodfellas
- Kevin Sky, “Nightfall” — from Drive
- Beck, “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometimes” — from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Opus III, “It’s a Fine Day”
If I had heard 6 Music in overnights, I could have heard an hour from artist-in-residence Courtney Barnett, or an hour devoted entirely to that week’s new adds. (In regular music hours, there was also Bill Withers’s “Lovely Day” playing next to Lucinda Williams’s “Joy,” and Paul McCartney’s “Temporary Secretary” a few songs away from Yoko Ono’s “Nobody Sees Me Like You Do.”)
In this time of ubiquitous device promos, it is also worth noting that 6 Music didn’t just tell the audience to listen on their smart speakers, but how to tell them to rewind if they had missed something.
6 Music has BBC news on the half-hour. Even though CBC has a major N/T offering where Power’s show is heard twice-daily, it also runs news at :00 on CBC Music, evolved over the last 20 years from CBC Radio 2, formerly a Classical outlet. Now Classical and contemporary blocks alternate during the day. Afternoon host Rich Terfry set up the 3 p.m. news on Tuesday by telling listeners “The news in a nutshell is coming. It’s good for you.”
I remember CBC Music’s growth coinciding with Canada’s burgeoning indie scene of the late ’00s, but there’s a slightly poppier feel to the station than 6 Music, perhaps because the CBC can’t support Canadian music over the multiple platforms BBC has at its disposal. Part of the appeal of Triple-A is hearing somebody speak intelligently about what you’re hearing. Terfry didn’t just explain how Chris LaRocca was trying to sound like the Band. He talked about Demi Lovato for an audience that might not know her either.
In fact, this hour of CBC Music began with a feature called “Distant Cousins,” where listeners point out similarities between songs. At the urging of an Edmonton listener, Terfry played a snippet of Cher’s “Strong Enough” before “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus in its entirety.
Here’s CBC Music’s Drive at 3 p.m., March 17 as heard on CBL Toronto:
- Miley Cyrus, “Flowers”
- Carsen Gray, “Loud Light” (Canadian)
- Chris LaRocca, “Preaching to the Choir” (Canadian)
- Olivia Dean, “Man I Need”
- Couer De Pirate, “On S’Aimera Toujours” (Canadian)
- Jarvis Church, “Shake It Off” — Early-’00s Canadian pop hit with a then-unusual retro-funk feel
- Charlotte Day Wilson, “Selfish”
- Allison Russell, “Nightflower” (Canadian)
- Barr Brothers, “Run Right Into It” (Canadian)
- Maya Cook, “Silarjuaq” (Canadian)
- Demi Lovato, “Let You Go”
- Sara Kae, “Do You Think of Me” (Canadian)
- Raye, “Where Is My Husband!”
- Sloan, “Everything You’ve Done” (Canadian)
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