Save Peel Campaign
Our friends at the Edinburgh Uni Indie Soc have come up with a form letter to send to the BBC to complain about the shunting of John Peel. This is that letter:

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to express my concern over proposed changes to the Radio 1 schedule during the summer, most notably with respect to moving John Peel's show back an hour. Frankly, this is just not on.

Mr. Peel is a living legend and a stalwart of your otherwise pathetic excuse for a radio station. What are you doing, condemning him to the graveyard shift in exchange for our airwaves being clogged up by yet another commercial dance show, indistinguishable from the pap broadcast on all the other big stations out there?

Whilst I understand that Mr. Peel might lack the broader appeal of the daytime DJs, this still does not excuse changing the time of his show to an even later hour than it is already broadcast at. Without any disrespect to the great man, he is one of your more mature DJs.

Surely, it is unwise to make him work such late hours, thus endangering his health, when younger and more sprightly presenters could easily put on a show at such an uncivilised hour, without such significant risk to their general wellbeing?

This man is a national institution and should be properly treasured and protected, not cast aside like a used and broken toy. I understand that some of your listeners have expressed their delight at these changes, since it will allow them to listen to Mark Radcliffe's show on Radio 2 as well as the Peel show, where they are currently unable to do so because the two programmes are on simultaneously. I admit that this was a particularly bad piece of scheduling, when the two shows obviously have a significant overlap in listeners.

However, the change you are proposing is not the solution! By all means, broadcast Radcliffe's and Peel's shows at different times, it would be a sensible move, but do not do this at the expense of Mr. Peel's current time of broadcast. Radio 1 cannot claim to promote new and original music when it consistently moves its best shows to later, smaller and more obscure slots in order to make more prime-time space for more commercial and safer material. You can move shows such as John Peel's back to a later time, safe in the knowledge that his dedicated fanbase will forego a good night's sleep in order to tune in to it, but this sort of programming is making great music from independent labels less and less accessible to new listeners.

You can argue that Mr. Peel's programme lacks the broader appeal your other scheduled shows, but how can he ever reach new and younger fans when his show is stuck on at an hour well past most of their bedtimes?

Consider carefully how you handle the few good things Radio 1 has left going for it. It might seem like a commercially safe decision, but if you consistently behave like this, you will lose much of the credibility Mr. Peel gives to you.

Yours Faithfully, (add name here)