Indie band Half Man Half Biscuit have never been ones to court publicity, having once turned down the opportunity to appear on Channel 4 music show The Tube to watch their beloved football team, Tranmere Rovers.

But now the group, a favourite of the late John Peel, are about to become the focus of an unlikely campaign to save the BBC's seemingly doomed digital radio station 6 Music.

A group of campaigners is encouraging the station's small but dedicated band of listeners to propel the band's song Joy Division Oven Gloves into the charts – specifically to No 6, to reflect the identity of their favourite station. 6 Music fans are being urged to buy the song this week in order to get it into the chart on Sunday 12 April.

The commercial radio top 40, The Big Top 40 Show, has a top 10 based entirely on iTunes sales figures, allowing listeners to influence chart positions during the course of the Sunday afternoon show.

The Half Man Half Biscuit plan follows a successful internet campaign to make Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name the Christmas No 1 in protest at the monopoly of the festive chart by X Factor contestants.

"We don't mind if it gets to six or 36," said one of the campaign's co-ordinators, Chris Shade, from Rochester in Kent. He said it had started out as "a bit of a joke", but the song – from the band's 2005 album Achtung Bono – has now become an unofficial anthem of the station.

"The important thing is that a lot of people are getting very passionate about saving 6 Music," Shade said. "I hope it will help make the BBC see sense. It is too important a station to lose. With expanding digital radio coverage I think they will attract a much larger audience to the station if only they give it a chance."

Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, sounded the death knell for 6 Music, along with the Asian Network digital station, as part of a wide-ranging review of the corporation's operations, published last month. The music station is home to DJs including Lauren Laverne, Shaun Keaveny and Steve Lamacq.

The decision to shut 6 Music was greeted with a howl of protest from listeners, trade unions, the music industry and the station's own presenters. A Save BBC 6 Music group on Facebook has nearly 200,000 members, and the BBC has received more than 8,500 complaints about the closure, due at the end of next year.

Geoff Davies, owner of Half Man Half Biscuit's record label, Probe Plus, said the band's singer, Nigel Blackwell, was "flattered" by the attention. "But he's not one to blow his own trumpet. I was away when it all started happening. Joy Division Oven Gloves is a bit of a throwaway song - they've done far more epic, interesting songs than this - but it's an easy laugh, the title wins you over," Davies added.

Davies said 6 Music was a "smashing station" – though not quite good as it was – and the first national music station to play Half Man Half Biscuit since Peel and Andy Kershaw were on Radio 1. "It was a dream come true for us when 6 Music started," he said. The band's previous highest chart placing was with Trumpton Riots, which reached No 27 (and No 1 in the indie chart) in 1986. Their albums include Back in the DHSS, Voyage to the Bottom of the Road, and CSI: Ambleside.

Tracy Mortar, who organised the Rage Against the Machine campaign with her husband Jon, said: "It's another way of getting the station talked about. The important thing is that people respond to the BBC strategy review." The "Let's get Half Man Half Biscuit's Joy Division Oven Gloves at No 6!" Facebook site had more than 5,000 members today. "After the BBC's scandalous announcement that they wish to close 6 Music and the Asian Network, we want to propel Half Man Half Biscuit's Joy Division Oven Gloves into the dizzying chart position of No 6," said the group's Facebook page.

"We see this great slice of Birkenhead poetry as being a great representation of all that 6 Music is about, a home for new acts and classic music that gets no exposure anywhere else on the radio."