Latest news about Virgin Radio UK

RAJAR Q2 2019: London and national brands round-up

Zoe Ball has lost more than three quarters of a million listeners to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, according to the latest audience research from RAJAR. The show’s reach is down 781,000 quarter-on-quarter to 8.266m for the three months survey period up to the 23rd June 2019. In Q1/19 she had 9.047m listeners; in Q2/2018 Chris Evans reached 9.038m. Radio 2’s audience at breakfast is now the lowest its been since Q3/2010, when Evans was fairly new in the job.

Kate Lawler to replace Matt Richardson on Virgin Radio Drive

Virgin Radio is making a few changes to its weekday schedule as Matt Richardson leaves to focus on his comedy career. Afternoon presenter Kate Lawler is replacing Matt on Drive, with Tim Cocker moving up from evenings to take over Kate’s slot. Kate said: ”Virgin Radio has an amazing buzz about it. With the legend that is Chris Evans getting the nation to work from Monday to Friday, it’s an absolute privilege to be entrusted with getting them home again at the other end of the day. I’m soooo excited to be bringing more rock and roll to the radio at drivetime!”

James Cridland’s International Radio Trends: Where should a radio station be? And RAJAR Q1 2019

James Cridland, radio futurologist, is a conference speaker, writer and consultant. He runs the media information website media.info and helps organise the yearly Next Radio conference. He also publishes podnews.net, a daily briefing on podcasting and on-demand, and writes a weekly international radio trends newsletter, at james.crid.land.

RAJAR Q1 2019: Milestones reached for DAB and digital radio

Digital listening has reached a new record share of 56.4%, up from 50.9% in Q1 2018, according to RAJAR Q1 2019 data released today. The annual growth of 5.5 percentage points to 56.4% from 50.9% represents the strongest ever percentage point growth in digital listening platform share since records began. Digital reach increased by over 2 million listeners to 36.3 million and overall digital listening grew by 55.9 million hours or by 10.7% year on year.

RAJAR Q1 2019 – Zoe & Chris plus national and London radio round-up

Chris Evans and Virgin Radio both reached over a million listeners in the first quarter of 2019. The digital station’s audience has almost trebled compared with the last period of 2018 thanks to the arrival of Evans from Radio 2. In Q1/2019 it posts a weekly reach of 1.3m and total hours of 7.765m. A year ago those figures were 427,000 and 1.632m. Last quarter they were 447,000 and 1.686m.

Broadcasters unite once again for Mental Health Minute

Commercial Radio and the BBC are once again uniting to broadcast a one-minute message in support of mental health awareness. For the second year Mental Health Minute will feature globally famous voices and unite stations all over the UK, from national networks such as those run by Global, Bauer and Wireless, to smaller local stations and community stations, together with BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, and 5 Live.

Radio professionals head to Student Radio event in Swansea

A number of radio presenters, producers and management are in sharing their experience and knowledge with students in Swansea this week. The annual Student Radio Conference is taking place over three days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and has a line-up to rival most other industry events. Radio presenters giving up their time include Greg James, Adele Roberts, Aled Hayden Jones, Stephanie Hirst, Matt Edmondson, Mollie King, Tim Cocker, Will Manning, Vicki Blight, Trevor Nelson, Tom Swarbrick, Alex Mansuroglu and Sam Darlaston.

talkSPORT goes live from new studios at News UK

talkSPORT has begun broadcasts from its new home on the 17th floor of the News UK building at London Bridge, after almost 20 years at Hatfields. Alan Brazil’s breakfast show with Ally McCoist and Dean Saunders was the first to air from studio 17E at 6am, with guests including Olly Murs, Lawrence Dallaglio, Ian Holloway, George Groves and the Premier League trophy.

talkSPORT 2 makes the move to News UK building

News UK is welcoming the talkSPORT 2 team to its building as the station moves out of its home in Hatfields. The station is tweeting video content of the presenters in the new studio from this morning, which is in Southwark overlooking the River Thames, next to The Shard. Virgin Radio is already broadcasting from the News UK HQ, with Chris Evans currently using the future talkRADIO studio ahead of a larger studio being completed for his own show and the rest of the station.

Chris Evans on Virgin Radio – same show, different station

Chris Evans returned to the radio this morning with the same show, different station. The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio has the same jingles, most of the same people, and the same energy from his BBC Radio 2 show which is finished on December 24th. The first song, Lucky Man, was played live by Richard Ashcroft, followed by Queen’s Dont Stop Me Now.