Virgin radio gets all huffy about "pop" groups!!!

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Looks like Virgin radio is joining the anti-pop backlash, by dropping all "teenybop" acts and concentrating on Darock instead!!!! Which begs the question... Why is it still called Virgin Radio!??!?! Surely it would be more appropriate to call it Menopause Musiczone or something similar!!!! :)

Old Fart!!!!!!

― Old Fart!!!, Friday, 26 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Darock" = "Dadrock"

― Old Fart!!!, Friday, 26 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, I've just realised that Virgin's "new" policy doesn't actually involve that much of shift!!! Still, it's a bit sniffy of them to make such a big deal about it!!!!

― Old Fart!!!, Friday, 26 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's just marketing - Virgin never really got behind pop anyway and now there's a pop backlash being attempted (maybe successfully, maybe not, who knows) it makes good sense for Virgin to nail its colours to the mast. Virgin is fucking tedious anyway - there's no way I'd listen to it for anything, let alone pop. In fact I'd be very surprised if anybody reading FT was a Virgin listener though no doubt someone will prove me wrong.

― Tom, Sunday, 28 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Virgin have never been a pop station - they've just gone from old album tracks and the like to become a kind of watered-down UK version of the "adult-contemporary" US format. I think it's a fucking awful station as well (they employ Gary Davies, for fuck's sake, and claim on their website that he is "a name synonymous with broadcasting", rather than, say, a fucking awful mid-Atlantic accent, boxer shorts, and Amazulu), and I've never listened to it ever, but I think this is quite logical if only because younger audiences (those my age - 20 - who only started listening to Radio 1 in the late 80s) can't really take the idea of music radio on MW, as Virgin is outside London, and therefore Virgin can never succeed in that market. Those who grew up in the 70s and most of the 80s, and grew up listening to Radio 1 when it was on MW only most of the day (up to 1978 on the frequency now used by Virgin; thereafter on TalkSport's frequencies) think of it as perfectly natural and are prepared to put up with the inferior sound quality. No wonder they are Virgin's target audience; concentrating on them makes commercial sense for the bastards.

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 29 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

Mr Woodward said the sale price reflected the fact that SMG sold the business without the brand.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin group objected to the buyer’s use of the brand name because Bennett Coleman competes with the Hindustan Times group, with which Virgin has a joint venture in India.

TIML and Absolute will invest £15m in rebranding the station, which it intends to use as the platform for a multimedia expansion which could include an online music subscription service, online video and mobile applications.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d50240b0-2e93-11dd-ab55-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

― James Mitchell, Monday, 2 June 2008 04:00 (seventeen years ago)

So what will it be called?

― Herman G. Neuname, Monday, 2 June 2008 18:42 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

Absolute Radio
http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?item.3759.2

― djmartian, Monday, 1 September 2008 20:50 (seventeen years ago)

Absolute SHITE morelike

(yes it's an easy one, but you know...)

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 08:11 (seventeen years ago)

Didn't Virgin orginally do this as a reaction towards BBC doing the opposite thing?

But maybe those of us who are 30+ don't have the right to have radio stations that play the kind of music we like?

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 08:17 (seventeen years ago)

"we"

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 08:21 (seventeen years ago)

But maybe those of us who are ~~30+~~ assembled in Taiwan don't have the right to have radio stations that play the kind of music we like?

Fixed

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 08:23 (seventeen years ago)

Well, WITHOUT going into specifics about what 30+ people would like...
(xpost too late?)

There's an awful lot of stuff that sells that has no radio presence, whereas 'new pop' is reasonably well served.

I used to listen to 6 music, but the combination of not having onlineness when driving around, combined with I;ve heard Going Underground enough times in my life thanks, means I don't now. Other stations are (not) available on my cronky radio, Xfm does not reach it so I can't comment.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 08:24 (seventeen years ago)

My two favourite radio DJs are Desmond Carrington and Tim Westwood so obviously I'm not representative of any demographic hooray!

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 08:26 (seventeen years ago)

"Absolute is a brand that is unapologetic, cheeky and infectious with a long-term brand building and investment strategy behind it..."

Hey, that sounds great!

― sonnypike, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 09:06 (seventeen years ago)

It sounds like death.

"Absolute" is a Scritti Politti single and that'll do for me.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 09:11 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.absolutads.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/absolut_disco3.jpg

― The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 09:12 (seventeen years ago)

(xxpost) "Music For Accountants"

― snoball, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 09:13 (seventeen years ago)

the current playlist is bland and boring
http://www.virginradio.co.uk/music/we_play/playlist/

― djmartian, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 11:38 (seventeen years ago)

Last song played...

Queen
Don't stop me now
Played at 12.30pm

― snoball, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 11:40 (seventeen years ago)

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