Back in September last year, I wrote a piece about how Virgin companies didn’t care much for their own brands. I cited the example of Virgin Trains promoting BBC radio and not Virgin Radio. A few weeks ago I met someone from Virgin Media, and he noted that Virgin Radio, my previous employer, had rather unhelpfully accepted sponsorship from Sky for their breakfast show just when Virgin Media was launching.

Well, all that’s moot now, as a deal with the Times Group of India and Absolute Radio International has resulted in the station being finally sold - without the Virgin name.

I understand that the decision not to keep the station branded as Virgin wasn’t a just decision of Virgin Enterprises Ltd, the company that owns the Virgin name; rather, a decision of the new buyers too. And I happen to think it was the right one.

Bauer Consumer’s rock brand Kerrang! has a magazine, a radio station, and a television station. Virgin Radio had access to the Virgin brand for radio broadcasting in the UK only; so couldn’t launch a television station - a natural step for a company which was owned by a television operator. SMG also owned a set of magazines in 2001; however, Virgin Radio couldn’t launch a music magazine either. Corporate synergies, stymied.

London station LBC 97.3 runs a dating service which, not unreasonably, they call LBC dating. Dating services represent additional revenue for stations - sometimes quite significant revenue. Virgin Radio couldn’t run a dating service under its own name (quite apart from “Virgin Dating” having some trades description problems!): instead, “81215 dating” was the rather clunky brand extension, using the text shortcode that was part of the signup process.

The “world’s first 3G radio player” was launched by Virgin Radio during my time. Did this clash with Virgin Mobile’s rights? (Someone thought so, at the time). Does Virgin Radio’s WAP site clash with Virgin Mobile’s rights, too? Did Virgin Radio’s appearance on Freeview clash with Virgin Media’s rights? When Virgin Radio earned money from premium-rate telephone calls or texts, was that a clash with Virgin Mobile too?

Perhaps the most obvious faliure of the Virgin brand to play together was Virgin Radio - the album. Someone, somewhere, allowed the album to be released, but wouldn’t let “Virgin Radio, the album” have a Virgin Radio logo on the front. The closest the station could manage was the star, and typed words, but no “Virgin” script. Hardly the branding benefit that the Virgin name needed.

There’s no doubt that the restrictions placed on the Virgin name gave Virgin Radio significant business disadvantages over other radio brands. Any non-traditional revenue had to get over the “will Virgin Enterprises allow it” issue; which manifested itself too often as an internal, self-censoring, restriction.

And, as I noted a while back, Virgin are not really known as a music entertainment brand any more. Their most public brands are all services - cable television, trains (a sexy brand extension), aeroplanes; Virgin’s record company, now wholly-owned by EMI, appears almost dormant, and their megastores have closed in the UK and the USA (in the UK, replaced by the preposterous sounding ‘Zavvi’). It’s a brand with real issues - spaceships excepted.

So - are Absolute and the Times Group of India right to junk the name? Absolutely. Given the problems the Virgin franchise has for anyone who wants to run a modern business in the internet age, a new brand is the courageous, and right, thing to do. Building a new brand will take time and money - it’s notable that the group have put aside £15m for this endeavour (and one shouldn’t forget the spaces on Freeview and Sky where they can achieve this).

And are Absolute and the Times Group the right owners? You betcha. I’ve spent some time with both Times Group people (a tour of one of their Radio Mirchi stations in India was instructive and really interesting); and the people I’ve met from Absolute have radio in their heart. They’re not a media company run by accountants. Absolute lack a London base and any large stations - owning two stations (both quite innovative) in their base in Oxford. I would see all my friends at Golden Square being very happy under their new owners; and Golden Square deservedly becoming the head office of the group.

And, god knows what a disaster it would have been for those at Golden Square - and for radio’s pluralism of voices in general - had UTV taken over the station.

Disclosure: Over the past few years, I’ve met with Times Group employees both here in the UK and in Mumbai, India. I’ve also met with a few of the the Absolute Radio International team. Both sets of people have bought me a few beers. My full disclosure is relevant and was updated 23 May.

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