Since my last blog post on this topic, not much has happened with NME Radio. It has been ticking over on DAB and Online as a jukebox, and I’ve occasionally tuned in just to hear some music, because I’m not wanting to listen to the limited alternatives. 6 Music however, another kettle of fish, but thankfully that has been saved from closure, power to the people and all that!

Late(ish) last night, I quickly glance at my twitter feed, and see something that catches my eye. This weird cryptic tweet on the @nmeradio account. I instantly reply, to no avail, and send out a tweet to who should have been on-air at that time of the evening. Nothing, no one knows, let’s blame the cleaner eh?

Then fast forward (well, a rather sleepless night, no idea why, but that’s obviously totally off topic), to this morning, and a news post appeared on radio today.

So, it seems that Town & Country Broadcasting, have “saved” NME Radio. So I’ve kept my eye on twitter, because that is where everything is happening, and noticed that someone asked about all the old presenters coming back. The reply came back saying that it’s early days blah blah, I reply to this saying that nothing was broken on weekdays, to which I get the reply that has got me thinking.

Yes, that wonderful line, just there, keen to build something that’s sustainable and can grow. But hang on a second, the news on Radio Today stated “full presenter-led service from the beginning of September.”

Now, sustainable just shouts, cheap, and even, god forbid, voice tracked / automated churned out small playlist no soul at all cheap radio. Did I say cheap? While full presenter-led sounds very similar to what NME Radio was like.

So, if this is a serious venture for Town & Country Broadcasting, please, please, don’t break things, they worked, the team during the week were excellent. Bring back Sarah, Iain, Jon & Chris.

Now, obviously I have no clue who is behind the @nmeradio twitter account at the moment, and for all we know it could still be the cleaner just replying to people at random (very dusty studio). I just hope that NME Radio doesn’t go into the awful overplayed boring radio that XFM is. NME had it’s place in the spectrum, and fit nice and snug between the geekyness of BBC 6 Music, and the commercialism of XFM. It was a station that you COULD listen to for hours upon end, and that’s is KEY.

The reason I state that is that I do sit in an office at times, and turn the radio on, and don’t want to hear the same song 4 or 5 times in a day, or that I’m driving north south east and west around the UK (not just the M1 with my new job), with my DAB plugged into the car. I am abnormal, and listen to the radio a lot. I need something listenable and NME Radio did and hopefully will do the trick.

Town & Country Broadcasting. I think, needs to listen to the old listeners. Obviously I would think that, because I liked, no loved the station that NME Radio had become, and it felt like it was going from strength to strength. They need to bring back a great radio station and just make it work, market it slightly, cut into the XFM reach with being slightly different, slightly more edgy, and less playlist driven, and then work on making it better. DAB from the start is a sign in the right direction, DAB in Stereo would be even better, but it worries me that they might go cheap, voicetracked and automated, which is much like The Storm was back in when, well, that station was around. I don’t think I’m alone in these thoughts.

Fingers Crossed eh?!

EDIT – Thanks to Sol for the comment and I’ve now read The Guardian’s post too. I’m going to reserve judgment for the time being. I’m not really happy about the “Regional DAB” comment, because that’s really difficult to listen to when in a car, because sometimes the regional DAB will cover only the city you’re in, and then 15 minutes later you’ve lost signal. National DAB is a must. Also, I’m not keen on the line that Sol quoted in the comments below “would be a more commercial incarnation” because that just sounds like XFM!

I really want this to be as good as it was, all they’ve got to do to please me is one of 2 things.. 1 – give me my own weekend show, or 2 – improve the weekend schedule.

Doubt number 1 will happen, but one can dream!

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