Media Guardian reports today that digital radio station NME Radio will close in it's existing form on all platforms; Sky, Virgin Media, Freesat and DAB. The brand will continue solely as an online music stream.

This is bad news for UK radio and DAB in particular. NME was probably the nearest commercial alternative to BBC 6 Music and distinctively different to its rivals. I had this station earmarked as my replacement should the BBC Trust decide to close the threatened network.

What this does show is that commercial radio cannot provide a station even remotely similar to the offerings given by 6 Music. It's a shame that the decision to close NME Radio didn't come a couple of weeks earlier when this could have been used as evidence in the Strategy Review.

Hopefully the BBC Trust will still look at this latest development and see 6 Music for what it is - a station that truly provides what commercial radio cannot; an eclectic mix of alternative, live and archive music from knowledgeable and respected presenters.

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Tags: broadcasting, radio