Digital re-boot: Virgin Radio is back

Virgin Radio has returned to the airwaves after an eight-year hiatus.

Available from today (Wednesday 30 March) on DAB digital radio, rock/pop-centric Virgin Radio promises to bring “a little edginess, verve and humour back to the airwaves,” with début presenters including Edith Bowman and comedian Matt Richardson.

The station disappeared from UK airwaves in 2008 after it was bought by the Times of India Group, where it then became Absolute Radio; however, a deal between Virgin Group and UTV at the beginning of last year set the Virgin brand – which in its last Rajar audit in 2007 recorded more than 2.4 million weekly listeners – up for a digital return.

UTV forms part of Sound Digital, a consortium of Arqiva, Bauer and UTV Media GB, which was awarded the licence to run a second national digital radio multiplex by Ofcom in March 2015.

Alongside Virgin, the line-up is set to include:

Digital radio listening grew by 10% year on year in Q4 2015 with more than 48 million adults tuning in to their selected radio stations each week.

30 million people (56%) currently tune in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver – DAB, television or online – with the share of all radio listening via a digital platform standing at almost 42%.