UK national commercial station Virgin Radio, which has a reach of 5 million listeners, is to change its name to Absolute Radio. This follows the purchase of the station in June by TIML, part of the Times of India Group. TIML did not buy the Virgin Radio brand licence and is legally obliged to change the radio station’s name within 90 days of purchase. The new name will be phased in gradually during September, and used exclusively from 1 October.
The Virgin Radio brand licence came with the restriction that the radio station had to remain a UK radio business. TIML says it has ”international aspirations” focused on the North American and European markets, and is looking to diversify the brand into live music, ticketing, TV, mobiles and gaming. The Times of India Group already owns 30 radio stations in India.
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:55
So, ‘TIML says it has ”international aspirations” focused on the North American and European markets’.
How will the output of a single station based in the UK and serving that audience, also serve people in around 5 or 6 different time-zones at the same time, I wonder?
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 11:11
I don’t think they mean that they want to carry the UK station to other countries, but they are interested in setting up new stations elsewhere using the Absolute Radio brand.
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 19:01
Hi Terry, We are 100% owned by TIML, a large private Indian Media Group. We have over 500,000 monthly visitors online, most of which come to us to stream. Currently 50% of that community are outside the UK, spread across the world with an emphasis on North America and Europe. Our insights confirm that they come to station to sample a unique mix of ‘real music’ live from one of the Music Capitals of the World, London. We hope to continue to grow our international audience by continuing to invest in creating great music radio along with other innovative channels. In the future we may look at country specific stations with the Absolute name. Clive
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 19:40
Actually, Absolute brand was recently aquired by Pernod Ricard Group!
The Group’s other brands include Chivas, Martell, Jameson, Malibu, Kahlúa, Havana Club, etc.
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 20:50
But it’s spelled differently. The drinks brand is Absolut without the e
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 21:06
You start drinking too much absolut and you don’t care about the “e”. Wonder how it works in other languages and cultures? I need some time to grasp this one.
on Sep 2nd, 2008 at 23:27
You know what’s interesting here….!?
Virgin Radio International last year saw launches of Virgin Radio in France and Italy. And the main operation under the name of Virgin Radio will no longer be a Virgin Radio-station.
Making France and Italy the only European countries with Virgin Radio. Or would Virgin Radio International (to be found on http://www.virginradiointernational.com) have plans to launch a ‘new’ Virgin Radio in the United Kingdom soon?
on Sep 3rd, 2008 at 08:25
Will the new owners do something about the poor audio? In East Anglia (and possibly other regions) you can hear two or three echoes on 1215 kHz, and it’s much the same on 1197 kHz – even in daylight ground wave. All presumably due to the audio feeds having different digital delays via different routes.
Is it not obvious to the station that this reduces the useable coverage? Even the BBC still manages to ensure the Five Live synchronized group doesn’t have this problem.
on Sep 3rd, 2008 at 09:11
It was nice to get a response from Clive Dickens, who’s the station’s Programme Director. And via Media Guardian, I see that Clive runs a blog called http://onegoldensquare.com/ (One Golden Square is the station’s address in London). I suggest you post your comments and questions there.
on Sep 3rd, 2008 at 10:57
1215 KHz has always been a poor frequency, in the end it was only ever used
to provide a stronger signal for the Light Programme in the high populated
areas around the UK. Then the government push to have the BBC operate a
pop music service, so they used 1215 KHz, by adding a few more transmitters
around the country.
Virgin is stuck with the same arrangement, until something else comes along.