BBC 6 Music, which costs £6m a year to run and has a weekly audience of 695,000 listeners, was one of the victims of a cost-cutting exercise announced in February.
But two months on corporation insiders have suggested it will be re-branded as Radio 2 Extra and will feature many of the same DJs and much of the same playlist as it does now.
The apparent change of heart follows an outcry from both listeners and a number of musicians, among them David Bowie and Lily Allen.
A public consultation into the planned closure of 6 Music is scheduled to run until the end of next month.
The BBC Trust, the corporation’s watchdog, regards the station as “distinctive and well liked”, and Sir Michael Lyons, the trust’s chairman, has suggested he might ask Mark Thompson, the director-general, to save the service if there was a strong backlash against taking it off air.
One Facebook group set up to keep 6 Music on air has more than 78,000 members, while 1,000 fans demonstrated outside Broadcasting House last month. The British Phonographic Industry has also protested at the closure, claiming it will block a much needed outlet for new bands.
The head of Absolute Radio, a commercial rival formerly known as Virgin Radio, has said that he would be prepared to take over 6 Music from the BBC and run it more efficiently.
Speculation about a reprieve has come a week after the station was nominated for seven Sony awards, the Oscars of the radio industry.
Lauren Laverne, its star presenter, received two nominations, while Jarvis Cocker, the former frontman of Pulp, was nominated in the “rising star” category for his 6 Music show.
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