When the BBC announced its plan to close 6music, the management spoke of how it was a station the commercial sector could provide.

In reality there were only ever likely to be two stations who would pick up sizeable numbers of 6music listeners - XFM and NME Radio.

And now that list has got one smaller with the news that NME Radio is to be pulled from digital radio and TV, lose its presenters and become an online only service.

The station was run as a franchise by a company called DX Media although it had strong links with NME, being based in the same building and using NME writers and journalists in some programmes. It was also home to a raft of former XFM presenters and staff including Iain Baker and Clare Sturgess.

However despite national coverage and the backing of a major music publication, the station's reach remained relatively small, with an audience of just 226,000 people.

The reason behind the changes seems unclear. Whilst the Guardian's report mentions that brand owner IPC withdrew the licence, IPC's press release states that it was DX Media who withdrew from the deal and, notably, at the time of writing DX Media's website has gone offline.

Arguably the fight to save 6music can't have helped NME Radio's viability, although the crossover between the two stations in music policy was not huge according to comparemyradio.com. However the fact that the station shutters have been pulled up before any formal decision is made on 6music suggests either someone involved with NME Radio wasn't particularly confident that 6music would go, or that other factors were involved.

Either way, NME Radio joins a number of stations that have bitten the dust over recent years, and it's closure certainly will have an impact on the music variety carried on the UK's radio network.