Country music fans in the UK have too long gone miserved by the BBC and the UK media in general. There are thousands of us here in Scotland, Ireland, Wales & England who loyally buy albums, dvds, other memorabilia, attend concerts and so on.
Yet Country has always been ignored on UK tv & radio except in the context of historical features or ridicule. We feel it's time we were given our fare share by stations such as Radio 1 who claim to represent all genres of music but never play any Country releases, new or old.
Every genre has it's own radio and/or tv station in this country except for Country music. If current stations are not willing to meet our demands then we ask that they create new channels & stations to meet our needs.
We the undersigned wish to express our desire for the BBC to create a radio station and/or tv channel featuring Country music, to cater for the thousands of fans of this genre across the UK. We feel that there are more than enough of us to warrant this action, and I would like to draw your attention to your Royal Charter, specifically
4. The Public Purposes
The Public Purposes of the BBC are as follows%u2014
(a)
sustaining citizenship and civil society;
(b)
promoting education and learning;
(c)
stimulating creativity and cultural excellence;
(d)
representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities;
(e)
bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK; The media in the UK poorly represents Country Music, but, a substantial audience, which far exceeds other, better-represented genres, closely follow all forms of Country.
The lack of airtime given to Country Music is, in part, causing a decline in creativity and education about this music. Furthermore,you are failing to represent a substantial minority of UK population.
I believe that the BBC Royal Charter, in particular Section 4 above, provides ample obligation upon the BBC to offer national Country Music programming commensurate with that given to other musical forms
I, therefore, call upon you to immediately commission suitable national and regional programming to correct this breach
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
