Petition to save Radio 4 Extra passes 8,000 signatures

Dismay at the loss of a valued resource: 'Give me a curator over an algorithm any day'

More than 8,000 Radio 4 Extra fans have signed our petition to save the station.

Last week the BBC announced a cost-cutting move to close the station. which showcases the best of the broadcaster’s audio comedy and drama archive, both vintage and more recent.

At most, the move will save £4million a year – just 0.067 per cent of the BBC’s almost £6billion-a-year budget. That same percentage of the £180 a year licence fee works out at around 12 pence.

Last year, the Corporation spent more than twice that amount – £8.33million – on management consultant

The BBC says some programmes will still be on BBC Sounds after Radio 4 Extra closes in the spring – but that will require listeners knowing what to search for, rather than being offered a curated selection of shows that may be new to them.

We will formally send our petition to director-general Matt Brittin later this week.

Many listeners have also left comments such as: ‘I've laughed and learned more in one evening listening to 4 Extra than a month of on demand services. Give me a curator over an algorithm any day.’

'Thoughtful curation in media is a dying art in the age of algorithmic feeds, Radio 4 Extra costs nexts to nothing and shows why that curation is so valuable. A station that does something different to anything else the BBC offers, let alone the commercial sector with a strong audience - to close it is a repudiation of the public service remit; it stinks of giving up.'

‘Radio 4 Extra is preserving Britain's radio heritage. It's an historically important resource. Just dumping programmes on Sounds will deprive people from being exposed to programmes they wouldn't have known about otherwise. Please reconsider this shortsighted decision.’

'The BBC has an amazing archive of intelligent & entertaining radio that Radio 4extra has brought to our attention. It's the lowest costing BBC radio station and is a completely irrational budget cut.'

'Radio4 Extra is my go-to station, especially during the night. It's worth the whole of my licence fee in itself.'