Planet Rock hopes to sign up Bruce Dickinson

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. Planet Rock is loss-making but Bluemel said he hoped it would break even, on a monthly basis, by the end of this year. He said Planet Rock cost about £2m a year to run, split evenly between content and distribution. It is broadcast online, on digital TV, and on the national commercial digital audio broadcasting (DAB) platform, Digital One . Bluemel said he had "tentative conversations" with Dickinson and hoped to speak to him again this week. "Bruce is interested in doing a show for Planet Rock and I am interested in having him. Whether we can put a deal together remains to be seen," he added. Planet Rock, which was named digital station of the year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2008 , has recently overhauled its playlist to include what Bluemel described as "latter-day classic rock acts" such as Foo Fighters, Green Day and Muse. "Rock is evolving and we should evolve a bit with it," said Bluemel. "Otherwise you end up playing to a lot of dead people. You can't keep playing the same records but we have got a massive playlist and we will always be playing Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and AC/DC." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".