Virgin Radio Goes On The Air

12.17pm

Richard Branson officially launched Virgin 1215 minutes ago in Manchester saying that it was the radio station he always wanted to hear and hoped it would be the one listeners wanted also.

The first record to be played on the Richard Skinner show was “Born to be Wild”, specially recorded for Virgin by INXS.

The second was a previously unrecorded record by The Cure, correctly predicted by Clive Howse of Media Business – and therefore certainly worth a bottle of champagne. Congratulations!

INDUSTRY COMMENT ON VIRGIN RADIO

Media Planning Director with The Media Centre, Nigel Conway, believes that commercial radio in the past has suffered from being too regionalised, making planning very difficult. The introduction of a new national network can only be a good thing, he believes. With a strong managerial team and a good combination of “more music, less chat” it will provide a very good formula for both audience and advertisers.

Andy Carter of Capital Radio wishes the station every success, believing that it could do very well. He says that it will represent a challenge for all ILR and BBC stations but its only problem will be the fact it is on an AM frequency, a difficulty which owner Richard Branson plans to sort out in the near future (Newsline 28/4).

According to reports on the station a motion is being presented to the House of Commons this afternoon which would allow the station an FM frequency.

ADVERTISERS ON VIRGIN

As reported some time ago the first advertiser on Virgin 1215 was The Royal Mail. The ad was followed up a couple of minutes later with a radio-style “advertorial” which had household rock names praising the worth of receiving letters and Richard Skinner welcoming the company as first advertisers on the new station. Carling Black Label was the next advertiser on the air after an hour of transmission.