1993–1997: Virgin Radio launch and early years The
Broadcasting Act 1990 allowed for the launch of
independent national radio (INR) stations in the United Kingdom. The
Radio Authority was mandated to award three INR licences, one of which (INR1) had to be for a "non-pop" station (which was awarded to
Classic FM), and one of which had to be for a predominantly speech-based service (this would be advertised later as INR3 and awarded to
Talk Radio). The remaining licence was to be open to "all-comers". The licences were to be awarded to the highest cash bidder, providing that the applicant met criteria set down in the Broadcasting Act. The second national licence, INR2, would take over the 1197 kHz and 1215 kHz
medium wave (AM) frequencies, which were to be relinquished by
BBC Radio 3. The licence was advertised in October 1991 and five organisations bid: the Independent National Broadcasting Company of Sheffield, which bid £4,010,000 per year; a
TV-am/
Virgin consortium (£1,883,000);
Chiltern Radio Network's 20/20 Radio (£1,311,000);
Radio Clyde's Score Radio (£701,000); and a consortium of
CLT,
Harvey Goldsmith and
RTÉ (£211,000). Later that year, TV-am lost its
ITV franchise and its stake in the radio station was sold in March 1993 to
Apax Partners,
JP Morgan Investment Corporation and
Sir David Frost. The station launched as Virgin 1215 at 12:15 pm on 30 April 1993. The original line-up of DJs included
Richard Skinner,
Russ Williams,
Jono Coleman, Mitch Johnson,
Graham Dene,
Nick Abbot,
Wendy Lloyd,
Tommy Vance,
Emperor Rosko and
Dave Fanning.
Chris Evans was also hired to present a Saturday morning show, following his success at
BBC GLR in the weekend mid-morning slot. The show,
The Big Red Mug Show, was sponsored by
Nescafé. Other key presenters included
Nicky Horne, Howard Pearce,
Lynn Parsons and
Jonathan Ross. The first song played was
INXS' cover version of the
Steppenwolf song "
Born to be Wild".
Richard Branson was the first voice to be heard, live from the
Virgin Megastore in Manchester, with
Richard Skinner the first voice back in the London studios. Skinner was also programme director, a role he shared with John Revell. John Pearson was launch sales director, a role he had previously held at
LBC. Andy Mollett was launch finance director. David Campbell, previously managing director of one of Virgin's post-production television companies, was the chief executive at launch. and then, when the Radio Authority launched a consultation on the use of the 105–108 MHz band, it lobbied for it to be set aside as a national network. The Radio Authority decided, however, that 105–108 MHz would be licensed to new local and regional stations and Virgin Radio applied for and won one of the new FM licences advertised in London as a result. Virgin Radio launched on 105.8 MHz FM in London on 10 April 1995 beginning with a message from broadcaster
David Frost at 6 am followed by the ''Russ 'n' Jono breakfast show''. Part of the licence requirements for the London service meant that a daily London opt-out was broadcast on FM, presented initially by
Rowland Rivron. Within a year, Virgin Group was considering the next steps for the radio station, including the option of a flotation or buying back the shares of JP Morgan, Apax and Sir David Frost. Capital's plans included moving Virgin Radio from 1
Golden Square to Capital's
Leicester Square building and splitting programming between the AM and FM services. The Radio Authority approved the acquisition, but
Nigel Griffiths, the Consumer Affairs Minister, referred the takeover to the
Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC). The MMC report into the takeover would not be issued until January 1998, and would recommend that the deal could only go ahead if
Capital Gold was sold or Virgin's London FM licence was excluded from the deal. However, the delay in approval of the Capital acquisition would ultimately lead to the deal not going through. In January 1997, Chris Evans left his role as presenter of the
Radio 1 Breakfast Show as a result of a disagreement between him and the programme controller
Matthew Bannister (Evans had asked for Fridays off to allow more time for him to work on his
Channel 4 television show,
TFI Friday). Evans was keen to return to radio and it had been reported that his agent, Michael Foster, had approached
Matthew Bannister to ask if Evans would be allowed to be return to Radio 1, and he had gone as far as commencing negotiations to buy Talk Radio. Richard Branson wanted Evans to work for Virgin Radio, so much so that he joined him on a
Concorde flight to New York to try to persuade him to join as the drive time presenter. In the end, Virgin Radio hired Evans to present the breakfast show, replacing the incumbent ''Russ 'n' Jono show'' (presented by
Russ Williams and
Jonathan Coleman). His show started on 13 October 1997, the same day that
Zoë Ball started as Evans' replacement on Radio 1. The initial contract would only be for ten weeks, until the MMC announced its decision on the Capital Radio takeover.
1998–2000: The Ginger Media Group Evans' ownership of Virgin Radio started well, with a breakfast show audience increase of 660,000 to 2.2m in his first three months. In August 1998, Evans took a spur of the moment decision one weekend to launch a Saturday afternoon show called ''Rock 'n' Roll Football'', which continues to be broadcast on Absolute Radio. From 5 October 1998, Virgin Radio started simulcasts of the breakfast show on
Sky One each morning for an hour between 7.30 and 8.30 am When a track was played on the radio, viewers would see a video at the same time. The start of the new football season in August 1999 saw
Terry Venables join Russ Williams in a show that would precede ''Rock 'n' Roll Football''. The management team at the Ginger Media Group were considering expansion opportunities, including a plan to acquire the
Daily Star newspaper from
United News & Media, and hire
Piers Morgan to edit it. Their plans were stalled, however, when the shareholders got cold feet. Evans wrote in his autobiography that "the management wanted to stick to our original brief of expansion, whereas our investors only cared about extracting the added value."
2000–2008: SMG ownership The management team therefore set itself on a strategy to sell the business three years ahead of schedule. It hired
Goldman Sachs to run the sale process, and considered a public flotation, before selling to the
Scottish Media Group for £225 million in March 2000. The Scottish Media Group, which owned
Scottish Television and the
Herald newspaper, fought off other bidders including
Clear Channel,
NRJ and
Guardian Media Group. Evans personally made £75 million out of the sale. Evans was subsequently fired by his new employer in 2001 for failing to report into work for five consecutive days while reportedly partying with his then wife
Billie Piper. Chief executive John Pearson, who had been with the station since before launch, resigned in April 2005, and was replaced by Fru Hazlitt, who had previously been managing director of
Yahoo! UK and Ireland. On 13 June 2006, SMG plc signed a deal with YooMedia to make Virgin Radio available on
Freeview. Long before the station's AM transmitters were closed in January 2023, it had always placed a great emphasis on other methods of transmission than medium wave, as the 1215 kHz frequency suffered from considerable interference, particularly after dark – BBC Radio 1, which used 1215 kHz for its first eleven years on air, moved to higher-quality medium wave frequencies (now used by
Talksport) in 1978 primarily for this reason.
2008–2013: Acquisition by Times of India and rebranding as Absolute Radio with Absolute Radio branding On 12 April 2007, it was announced that
SMG plc was to sell Virgin Radio, to enable the company to focus on its television station,
STV. On 30 May 2008 SMG sold Virgin Radio to TIML Golden Square Limited, a subsidiary of
The Times Group for £53.2 million, with £15 million set aside for rebranding. TIML was given 90 days' grace in which to rebrand the station. As part of the deal, Absolute Radio International, operator of two FM licences in
Oxford, would manage the station. On 1 September 2008 it was announced that Virgin Radio would be rebranded as Absolute Radio on 28 September. At the same time, changes to the line-up were made known with
JK and Joel, Robin Burke,
Tony Hadley and
John Osborne leaving the station and
Allan Lake,
Joanna Russell (of
Trent FM's Jo & Twiggy) and
Tim Shaw joining, though Osborne would return shortly after. The last song to be played on Virgin Radio was "
American Pie" by
Don McLean and the first to be played on Absolute Radio was, following the results of an online survey run by the station, "
Absolute Beginners" by
David Bowie and "
A Day in the Life" by
The Beatles. Listening figures for the final quarter of 2008 showed that almost 20% of former Virgin Radio listeners had been lost since the rebranding to Absolute Radio. The
Virgin Radio brand relaunched via DAB and online on 30 March 2016, following a new partnership with
Wireless Group and approval of its digital terrestrial commercial radio licence by Ofcom in March 2015.
2013–present: Acquisition by Bauer Media On 29 July 2013,
Bauer Media Group announced it intended to purchase Absolute from
The Times Group for an amount believed to be between £20m and £25m, pending regulatory approval. The deal was cleared by the
Office of Fair Trading on 23 December. Subsequently, by September 2014, all other London-based
Bauer stations moved from Mappin House to a refurbished
One Golden Square, creating a new national radio hub. Bauer Radio announced in July 2015 that Absolute Radio would be taking up the 105.2 FM frequency in the
West Midlands, previously held by
Planet Rock. Absolute launched on 105.2 FM on 7 September 2015. The station ended transmission on that frequency on 16 December 2018, following Bauer's decision to broadcast
Greatest Hits Radio on FM across the West Midlands. In March 2021, Ofcom approved Bauer's application for permission to alter the FM licence held by the London FM relay of Absolute Radio, enabling the frequency to be used to provide a London variant of Greatest Hits Radio. Absolute Radio continued to be available by way of its national AM and digital transmissions. The change took place on 17 May. At midnight on 20 January 2023, the station stopped broadcasting on AM; the station chose to bookend this side of the frequency by signing it off with the first song played on Absolute Radio in 2008, David Bowie's "Absolute Beginners", followed immediately before with a brief audio package saluting the AM portion's history. Ofcom issued Bauer Radio a £25,000 fine and revoked the medium wave licence on 13 February 2023. On 12 December 2023, Absolute Radio was removed from
Freesat TV platform, followed by
Sky and
Virgin Media TV platforms on 13 December, along with every other radio station owned by Bauer Media on either of the three TV platforms, including
Absolute Radio 80s,
Absolute Radio 90s,
Absolute Radio Classic Rock,
Hits Radio,
Greatest Hits Radio,
Kiss,
Magic,
Jazz FM and
Planet Rock. In 2022, Bauer said it would vacate One Golden Square and move to The Lantern, 75
Hampstead Road in Euston. The last broadcasts from the Golden Square studios took place in April 2024. == Programming ==