Look out you rock ‘n’ rollers: Virgin Radio is back

In a month of conspicuous demises within traditional media – The Independent in print, BBC3 on broadcast TV – it’s great to see the reinstitution of a radio icon. Growing up in the 90s, Virgin Radio played the Britpop soundtrack to my adolescence as I made mixtapes and flicked through Mizz magazine. If only for nostalgia’s sake, I was naturally keen to see what the all new Wireless Group-owned station would sound like.

Commercial radio is looking and sounding increasingly healthy, with people tuning in for 21 hours per week on average. The latest RAJAR figures from Q4 2015 saw commercial radio overtaking BBC listening figures for the first time in 15 years. This has been underlined by a flurry of new stations launching in the past month –  the biggest ever expansion in national commercial radio which comes after the launch of a new national DAB multiplex featuring 18 radio stations. Digital platforms have increased the opportunity for radio listening – and the rise of national radio brands continues to represent a consolidated and attractive proposition to advertisers.  But with commercial competitors Absolute 90s and Radio X occupying similar-sounding territory in the audio market, can the resurrected Virgin Radio offer something different?

With the sense of aplomb you’d expect from the Virgin brand, the first breakfast show was broadcast from a Virgin train in transit. Former BBC1, BBC 6 Music and Capital Radio presenter Edith Bowman – the only solo female breakfast show presenter in the UK at present – served up a refreshing mix of nineties and noughties hits (right from my musical comfort-zone) alongside up and coming artists, with celebrity support from Richard and Sam Branson on air and through their respective social channels. Nielsen’s 2015 study ‘Music 360’ found that 61% of people cite radio as their main source of music discovery. Launching Virgin Radio with a cover version of David Bowie’s Changes by relative newcomer Gavin James (who was discovered by Ed Sheeran in a Dublin pub) was inspired choice which gave Virgin a renewed claim to the territory of breaking indie music, most obviously held at present by BBC 6 Music. To me, the choice also observed perfectly the necessity and the ability of radio, a traditional channel, to continuously evolve and respond to an ever-changing media landscape.