IPC Ignite! launches Web NME radio

IPC Ignite!’s flagship music magazine NME has teamed up with Virgin Radio to launch a radio station.

NME Radio, which will be on air 24-hours a day, launches later this week as an online radio service via www.nmeradio.com. It will also be available as a data service on London’s digital multiplex – Switchdigital – where listeners with Psion Wavefinders will be able to tune in and listen through their PCs. The service will eventually be developed across satellite, digital and terrestrial platforms.

NME Radio’s launch will be the first radio launch for IPC Media, which has control of the music content. The media company was acquired by AOL Time Warner last month (MW August 2).

IPC Ignite! managing director Mike Soutar says: “This is a perfect partnership for IPC and Virgin. It brings together the strongest online music property with the UK’s biggest online radio broadcaster, as well as enabling us to extend the NME brand on to yet another platform.”

Virgin Radio, owned by Scottish Media Group (SMG), will provide technical, programming, production and advertising services for NME Radio.

Last year, IPC Media shut down Melody Maker, making NME, which launched in 1952, the UK’s oldest music magazine.

The last Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures (July to December 2000) for NME show a circulation figure of 70,003, a decline of eight per cent year on year.