The Music Machine (TMM) is a pair of British radio stations that broadcast an

alternative music Alternative music may refer to the following types of music: *Independent music *Alternative rock *Alternative pop *Alternative R&B *Neo soul, sometimes known as alternative soul *Alternative reggaeton *Alternative hip hop *Alternative dance *Alter ...

format. It is owned and operated by Sammy Jacob, founder of the original

XFM Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

. The station dates back to NME Radio which broadcast from 2008 to 2013 under branding of the popular music publication ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''. It relaunched in 2018 under ''NME'' branding before renaming to TMM in 2023. The two channels, TMM 1 and TMM 2, are broadcast 24/7 and can be received online via

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service providing news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the privately held company TuneIn Inc. based in San Francisco, California. The comp ...

or through the TMM website, and on DAB locally in Norwich and in parts of London.

History

Initial plans for an ''

''-branded radio station were revealed to the media in late 2007 by Sammy Jacob, creator of

, who left the station following its purchase by

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysal ...

. The station began operating under licence soon after by DX Media, a company operated by Jacob, launching on 24 June 2008 with its first track being " Knights of Cydonia" by British rock band

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

. The presenting line-up at launch included

Neil Cole Neil Cole (born 1 March 1972) is an English television presenter, comedian, radio broadcaster and actor. Early life Cole was born in Bristol in 1972, lived in Allendale, New Jersey, USA as a child, and attended King Edward Grammar School in ...

and Claire Sturgess. It was broadcast from studios in the Blue Fin Building in the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, also home to

IPC Media TI Media Ltd. (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of it ...

The station was initially only on

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

and

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

. NME Radio then launched on 87.7 FM in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

temporarily in November and December 2008. It broadcast temporarily here again in May 2009. At the same time it launched on DAB digital radio in the London region. On 22 December 2009, the station launched nationally on DAB joining the

Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It conta ...

platform for an eight-month trial.

Alex Zane Alex Zane (born Faris Alexander L. Albayaty) is an English television presenter and DJ. Early and personal life Zane was born in Leeds and attended Boston Spa School before going on to study Medicine at University College London, a course wh ...

, formerly of XFM, joined NME Radio on 30 April 2010 hosting a new Friday night show. On Friday 11 June 2010, almost two years after its launch,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

reported that DX Media had decided to end the agreement with IPC Media (owner of ''NME'') to operate the service. As a consequence, NME Radio turned into an online only automated "

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

" format and ceased broadcasting on DAB digital radio,

and

platforms. Then on 21 July 2010, IPC Media signed a new licence agreement with local radio group Town and Country Broadcasting. This led to the relaunch of NME Radio in September 2010 and it returned to some regional digital audio broadcasting (DAB) multiplexes in

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

and also to Freesat and Sky, where it was available until 5 December 2011. Operation sites were split between IPC Media's London HQ and Town and Country Broadcasting's station in south Wales, Nation Radio. NME Radio, under Town and Country Broadcasting, unexpectedly ceased broadcasting on 25 March 2013 at midday. There was no official announcement and it took presenter Michelle Owen to break the news in a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

post that afternoon. NME 1 2

NME Radio relaunched on 13 June 2018 with two stations, NME 1 and NME 2, with Sammy Jacob returning to be the station manager. The new NME stations took over online from Jacob's Camden Xperience Radio channels (CDNX), which were operated on a trial basis. NME 1 played "classics" while NME 2 played tracks of "the past decade". Initially, the new NME radio stations were available on DAB in Norwich and Brighton (NME 1 only). NME 1 launched on DAB in London in September 2018. Meanwhile, CDNX returned to DAB in London on the same multiplex in January 2020. In 2023, the contract with ''

'' magazine was terminated and as a result, NME 1 and NME 2 were renamed to TMM 1 and TMM 2, under Jacob's own The Music Machine branding. The change took effect on DAB in London on 10 December 2023.

Programming and music styles

The first iteration of NME Radio when under the control of DX Media, the station featured a variety of presenters (many formerly of XFM), including Claire Sturgess, Iain Baker,

Chris Martin Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is best known as the vocalist, pianist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Martin went to University Colleg ...

and

Ricky Gervais Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, television producer and filmmaker. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office (British TV series), The Office'' (2001–2003) ...

. Its music was focused on modern indie alternative rock. Following the takeover of operations by Town and Country Broadcasting, some daytime programmes were initially introduced. Presenters included Chris Blumer and Ben Evans. The second iteration of NME Radio, now The Music Machine, is mainly a

. According to the station, TMM 1 plays "classics from 60’s Garage and 90’s Grunge to 70’s Punk and 80’s New Wave" along with a selection of new music. TMM 2 on the other hand is described as playing new music covering "Indie to Electronic and Urban to Dance".

References

{{reflist

External links

Current TMM website
Radio stations established in 2008 Radio stations established in 2018 Internet radio stations in the United Kingdom New Musical Express 2008 establishments in the United Kingdom