If it could pull an audience like Absolute 80s it would try a big name.
I used to like Absolute 90s until Magic got its airspace. Could a station survive with daytime bring the last 25 years? With say a Golden Hour maybe a little further back?

When I saw Planet Rock mentioned the only Planet Rock which turns me on is this one: http://91.121.219.80:8330


Give it a go, I bet you love it as much as me and the missus do.

I agree about Chris Moyles for breakfast. Danny Baker would be good for weekend breakfast although does he travel well outside 5 live?. Another person in the news is Clarkson.

Clarkson may be better suited to the new Virgin's sister station talkRADIO?

Danny Baker might be a good choice for either Virgin or talkRADIO - can't see him leaving 5Live though.

Chris Moyles would be a good headline addition to bring people in although I can't see it happening. FM Lover mentioned Johnny Vaughan - with Johnny being at talkSPORT and his experience at Capital it seems an obvious choice.

I heard somebody mention that Simon Parkin might be up for a presenting role on this station.... remains to be seen.

is he still a tv weatherman ?

For Meridian, yes.

Loved Virgin Radio back in the day, and I'm a daily listener to Absolute Radio now. I think there's room for a new Virgin Radio, can never have too much "real" music on the radio for a certain age group.

Mark

Hoping this a huge success once it launches.

I liked the original Virgin Radio, it was a nightmare to receive where I was and launching a rock station on AM in 1993 was akin to putting something out on VHS now

I wrote to the govt at the time, or maybe before, that R1 should get 88-91 FM, Line era R2 - 693/909 AM and the new commercial rock service should get 97-99 FM. Talk & 5 could divvy up 1053 / 1089 & 1215

I got a snooty response from the man at the ministry

I think this post is spot on. They won't be chucking tons of money at this and they'll go one of three ways (at least initially):

1. Jukebox 24/7
2. Jock at breakfast, rest is jukebox. Possibly a big name.
3. Lots of voice tracking by existing Bauer staff, like the Absolute Decades stations do.

I guess a mixture of 2 and 3 is a fourth option.

It's not a Bauer station - it's a UTV station.

In the application, it said they'd have live presenters at breakfast and drive time.

This could work, I still feel there is gap in the market for a more male version of Heart. It should focus on mainly 90s onwards, rock, pop, urban and dance must be included otherwise it will be just like Absolute. Current chart music from Ed Sheeran, James Bay, Kodaline, Years & Years could sit well alongside the classics. I'd go for big names at breakfast & drive. Moyles on breakfast, someone like Vernon Kaye on breakfast, Dave Pearce with Dance Anthems etc. Other ex Radio 1 voices from recent years could fit well here also.

Sounds like the perfect next career step for Moyles and Mills. Shame it will only broadcast to 2/3 of the country. I think Moyles and Mills would rather be on a D1 UK wide station like Absolute, Magic or Kiss.

as a person who knew of the orginal virgin radio, i am happy to see it back. hopefully the launch of another DAB platform will be good and may increase the take up of digital radio and ensure new cars get digital radios preinstalled

More of the same to crowd the airwaves though.

What is going to be especially different about this new incarnation then?

I discovered Virgin Radio by accident whilst looking for something to listen to on a train journey.

What did the original Virgin Radio replace?

I believe 1215 MW was:

BBC Radio 1 (1967-1978)
BBC Radio 3 (1978-1991?)

So from this do I/we take it that Virgin is testing on DAB/DAB+ or did you mean you discovered Virgin by accident years ago?.

The earliest projection for the first Digital Two transmitters was October, although it's more likely to launch early next year.

Although it's not beyond reason that one transmitter may already be on test.

Virgin will be standard flavour DAB, not DAB+

Ironically UTV have poached Liam Thompson who launched Magic nationally to be the Virgin PD
http://radiotoday.co.uk/2015/08/liam...-virgin-radio/
But with several ex Virgin radio UK management now also back, the music policy will probably be like the old station.

Seems the new studios are progressing for early 2016.
http://radiotoday.co.uk/2015/05/utv-...-dab-stations/
No news about presenters, but as he mentioned the station in his blog Richard Branson (Feb) looks like he might have a hands on say in the selection and relaunch and looks like he would try and get Chris Evans back, if he could, but seems unlikely.
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branso...orable-moments

If it becomes the same as the old VR i don't think i will bother as it will just be another Absolute which obviously took over the old virgin radio 1215.

Jonathan Ross doesn't get much radio work these days, and I don't think his TV ratings for ITV are exactly stellar. He seems a likely name for the new Virgin Radio.

I think they may well approach Nick Abbot, but Global may make it clear there's no place for him at LBC if he goes there, especially if Virgin will be competing with a rebooted national XFM.

What about Danny Baker becoming their resident weekend 70s pundit, doing a show where he tells all his anecdotes about the Sex Pistols and Led Zeplin inbetween tracks?

There's no way Chris Evans will have anything to do with it. He knows the difference between competing with the BBC and doing alternative stuff (like the new TFI Friday), and even launched a festival to raise money for Children in Need which has surely earned him major brownie points with BBC management.

Well who cares if there are any celebrities presenting programmes? I certainly hope we don't have the likes of Danny Baker etc on the new Virgin Radio.
Let's give some new radio people a chance instead of all these trumped up celebrities.

He'll be a great choice. As for celebrities, I agree - I hate it when they get people like Iggy Pop, Gene Simmons, Ana Matronic, Chris Tarrant, Paul O'Grady, Nick Ferrari, Iain Dale or Craig Charles to present radio shows because they're really no good at it and bring nothing special to the table compared to proper radio people like Nick Grimshaw, Nick Margerrison or the Mark & Lard breakfast show...