The Chief Executive of UK national commercial station Virgin Radio has told a conference of the Radio Academy that she wants to switch off the station’s AM signal by 2010 “because it is no longer economically viable to run it.” The station also broadcasts in London on FM, and nationally on DAB and satellite, where it also has a number of spin-off stations.
Addressing a one-day conference on the theme of “Radio at the Edge”, Ms Hazlitt said “”People listening to radio on AM are getting the wrong impression of radio. If lots of people are listening on AM that is a problem. The big strategic direction at Virgin is to get them off. I don’t want them listening to The Killers on that dreadful frequency, and The Killers don’t want them listening on that frequency either. You can’t hear the intro. It’s over.”
Ms Hazlitt continued: “Young people coming to radio will not consume it on AM. They just won’t want to. The comparison [with digital radio] is so huge it’s just ridiculous. You didn’t watch colour TV and decide you wanted to go back to black and white. AM radio is not the future. We have to more forward.”
Hazlitt said around 30 per cent of Virgin’s audience listened on digital. “Very soon it will be cheaper for us not to broadcast on the AM frequency,” she said. “The way our graphs are looking by 2010 it will not be commercially viable for us to broadcast on AM.”
(Source: Media Guardian)
on Nov 24th, 2006 at 09:17
Having listened to 1215AM since 1993 it feels like they\’re giving it a really hard time there and maybe undeservedly so. At night it\’s not great, but \
on Nov 25th, 2006 at 14:07
They might as well switch it off now - it must be the worst sounding AM signal on the dial. They play tracks you\’ll also find on Arrow Classic Rock (675 AM) which on Arrow can sound good - very good on the right receiver. On Virgin they sound unpleasant, on any set. And that\’s in daylight hours with a strong signal. Come nightfall, the 1215 network is a total row.