Search results matching tag 'virgin radio'

What's in a name? Absolutely everything if today's Rajars are anything to go by

1641923 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:49:00 GMT

Absolute Radio's programme and operations director Clive Dickens will be testing his international diplomacy skills today, as he tries to explain away listening drops of more than a fifth to his new bosses in India.

One of the few surprises in today's radio listening figures for the last quarter of 2008 is the dramatic loss of audience recorded by the former Virgin Radio station following its rebrand to Absolute in September.

Led by nearly 100,000 falls for Christian O’Connell's Breakfast show - from 554,000 to 466,000 listeners - the station, acquired by Times of India group last year, has posted an annual 23.6% decline in reach to just 2.2 million.

A defensive Dickens says the drops were expected and can be largley explained by confusion caused by the name change among the listeners completing the Rajar diaries.

His argument will not be helped if someone in India gets their hands on one of these diary forms - which clearly states (was Virgin Radio) next to each mention of Absolute.

He insists the station remains on track to hit its audience target of 3.5m listeners by the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011, although where this confidence is coming from remains a mystery.

Virgin Radio was already losing listeners before the takeover, and the loss of its 15 year brand heritage appears to have only speeded up the exodus. And this despite a £5m advertising campaign pushing the strapline "Discover real music".

Could it be the station's wider playlist which now incorporates more "classic" rock from yesteryear is not hitting the spot?

Virgin Radio, run by Absolute Radio, renamed Absolute Radio - how absolutely boring

1704826 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:26:00 GMT

So after months of trying to build up some sort of excitement about Virgin Radio's enforced name change with promises that the new name would only be chosen once all stakeholders had been ‘engaged with', the radio station in association with ad agency Albion has come up with Absolute Radio.

In a remarkable coincidence, this is also the name of part of the consortium that bought the ailing radio station, the other being the Times of India Group, which I suppose they decided after a lengthy process involving ‘complex criteria' was not an appropriate alternative.

Times of India with Absolute Radio bought Virgin Radio in June and promised to spend £15m on the new branding. There is a key lessons here - don't try and build up expectations and excitement when you are going for the obvious name otherwise it'll end up looking distinctly underwhelming.

An open-source re-launch?

1841938 — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:47:00 GMT

Virgin Radio is about to be acquired by the Times of India and relaunched by the Absolue Radio team of Clive Dickens, Donnach O'Driscoll and Adrian Robinson.
They've got a tough task ahead of them as the Virgin Radio name is going and they're having to rebrand and relaunch, as well as coping with all the issues (staff, operational, relationships) that arise when you buy a business.

The team are doing something a little different, however, to most evil corporate takeovers - they're being open. All Virgin Radio staff (and anyone else who wants to take part) can read and contribute to a blog - OneGoldenSquare.com - that the team have setup to discuss and brainstorm what the new owners should be doing and how they should be doing it. Already you can read about Clive's first staff presentation, breakfast jock Christian O'Connell talking about music research or digital media head Andy Gumbridge talking about the relevance of streaming on the iPhone.

In takeovers, whilst management often talk about staff being the most important asset, it's these kinds of initiatives that prove they really mean it. Or am I just being naive?