According to the lyrics to one of the more memorable songs in his canon, Queen’s Brian May is a “champion.” Now the famous guitarist is championing the cause of troubled British digital radio station Planet Rock.
In a posting on the Queen guitarist’s web log under the banner “mission to save Planet Rock,” May confirms he has become involved in “mounting a rescue operation” for the GCap Media station.
“I can’t tell you who I am ‘in league’ with, but I am part of a small group of people who have great hopes that we will succeed in taking over the station, and putting it on a firm footing, for the benefit of its growing audience,” May wrote on his site.
“I regard Planet Rock as rather more than just a radio station – it is a symbol of free radio … radio which is not run by large corporate organisations for the purpose of making tons of money, and has a free choice of what it plays.”
The classic rock-oriented digital audio broadcasting (DAB) station, which had 563,000 weekly listeners in the first quarter of 2008 in the latest official Rajar figures, is due to close May 30 if it owners cannot strike a deal. GCap itself was recently purchased by Global Radio.
Planet Rock is up for three awards at the 26th Sony Radio Academy Awards, to be held May 12 in London.
