Planet Rock plots Bruce Dickinson move

Planet Rock owner Malcolm Bluemel has revealed plans to sign outgoing BBC 6 Music DJ Bruce Dickinson to present a show at his station.

Bluemel said that he has already held "tentative conversations" with the Iron Maiden frontman, who is to leave his Friday Night Rock Show next month after eight years at 6 Music.

Speaking to The Guardian, Bluemel said that he hopes to have further talks with Dickinson soon to try to thrash out a deal.

"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 explained.

Under BBC director general Mark Thompson's strategy review, 6 Music is facing the axe by the end of 2011 as part of efforts to give more space to commercial rivals.

Bluemel, who rescued Planet Rock from closure in 2008, expressed his disappointment at the proposed end of 6 Music as it is "not a good thing for digital radio to have it close".

However, he described 6 Music's annual budget of around £9m as "ridiculous" and claimed that the station could be run just as effectively for much less.

"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," said Bluemel, who has guided Planet Rock to a weekly reach of 698,000 listeners, just ahead of 6 Music's 695,000.

Planet Rock is currently running at a loss, but Bluemel hopes the network will reach breakeven point by the end of the year.

The station, which costs around £2m a year to run, recently revamped its playlist to focus on more "latter-day classic rock acts", such as Muse and Green Day.

"Rock is evolving and we should evolve a bit with it. Otherwise you end up playing to a lot of dead people," said Bluemel.

"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."