What happened to the legacy of Peel? 16:27 22/03/2010, Tony Naylor, 6 music, Blogposts, culture, guardian.co.uk, John Peel, music, Guardian Unlimited

What happened to the legacy of Peel? 16:27 22/03/2010, Tony Naylor, 6 music, Blogposts, culture, guardian.co.uk, John Peel, music, Guardian Unlimited

We gorge on niche genres anywhere. Variety What we really need the BBC applies the type of John Peel

Amid the recent scandal about the future (or not) of 6 Music, a figure has loomed large. No, no, Mark Thompson, but John Peel.

"This is a disgrace to the legacy of the great man!" Tweet indie guys of a certain age. "How can the memory of the abuse of the BBC Peel this? Do all festive fifty votes mean nothing?"

To which I can only cry: HELLO EVERYBODY! Have not you listened to Radio 1 lately? Forget 6 Music, and consider how the Peel Station, the station he loved and often clung to his chagrin, happily dancing a merry dance on his grave. Note, if you will, Nick Grimshaw. Why no one complains about that?

Rewind to early 2005, and there was much talk, following the death of Peel, Radio 1 about how he would continue his work. New music became the mantra of the season. The big man was praised endlessly. John Peel Day was hatched. There was a plan - a fool, but a plan - which has three slots to share Peel DJs, in order to replicate its breadth and enthusiasm.

How well it worked, and how Radio 1 was sincere in its commitment to providing a real alternative, can be judged by the fact that Ras Kwame who is now much coveted 5 a.m. slot on Sunday morning. Of the three replacements Peel, Huw Stephens retains only a slot where feasible could play a log transformation to an impressionable teenager.

Meanwhile, 10pm Peel Show, in this historic window of voluntariness, the rare and unexpected beauty, has been busy in various ways by Colin Murray (a man whose musical tastes ran the gamut, from Ash to Nirvana) and now Grimmy , a DJ that defines the point where "indie" ceased to be a counter ideology and became a real look "at Topshop. What else can be concluded, but that Bruno Brookes won?

So what? So everything. 6 Music may or may not offer a true alternative eclectic - personally, to me sounds more like Janice Long John Peel - but no matter. With a median age of 37 listeners, is certainly not shaping young minds of tomorrow music. So if you want to talk about the legacy of Peel, and a struggle for the soul of radio production of the BBC, Radio 1 night-time must be the battlefield, no 6 Music.

Look across the program and all is not lost yet. In fact, Radio 1 (strictly controlled) proliferation of specialist music shows is half the problem. Respect Westwood, Fabio