After six years at Virgin Radio, I’d find it difficult to level an accusation at me of being ignorant around this matter. TOI’s decision was, as I’ve written, the correct one.

The article that you quote, which I did link to in my original post, only appears in The Times and in no other newspaper or no other reputable website; the station has always been the subject of intense press speculation.

Virgin could attempt to quickly licence their brand to another radio operator. It would be morally wrong (why shaft people who’ve been a good custodian of the brand for the last 15 years?), and give the new operator exactly the same issues with the brand that TOI have rightly escaped from. It would, in my opinion, be the wrong thing for both parties – VEL and the new licencee – to do.

How ignorant of you to think that Virgin would not wish to exploit their own brand, that they should somehow refrain from the UK radio market following TOIs decision not to use the Virgin brand, which reverts back to its owner Virgin Enterprises. It was an absolute crazy idea to buy Virgin Radio without the Virgin brand, a decision that will haunt them for years to come.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article4612053.ece

John McCann, the chief executive of TalkSport-owner UTV, will talk to Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group about joining forces to bring back the Virgin Radio brand when it disappears later this year.
Mr McCann, who failed to win Virgin Radio in the recent auction for the former SMG assets, said that the TalkSport and Virgin Radio brands would sit particularly well together.
The Virgin Radio assets, which were sold earlier this year without the Virgin brand, are set to be renamed in the next month by new owner Times of India.
“If Virgin Group wants to speak to us about doing something with the Virgin Radio brand, we’d be very interested. It is a strong brand and we would not have bought the Virgin Radio assets without it,” said Mr McCann. He signalled that UTV would be keen to get involved in the expected relaunch.

What’s interesting is that this is an interview with a Virgin Radio VIP – once more, showing the benefit of getting listeners involved right through the process.

Incidentally, “VIPs” are one of the “ten pillars” of the station – bits they don’t want to change. I’m delighted to hear that; the idea behind ‘VIPs’ was mine (indeed, the name was my idea too).

I’d also think that, personally, I tend to follow “absolute…” with negatives, and “absolutely…” with positives – as you have in your subject header. So is the new name “absolutely fab” or absolute cobblers?

Best of luck to them though, a strong Absolute can only be good for radio.

Also, my Vauxhall in-car DAB unit doesn’t put stations in alphabetical order at all. Digital 1 stations go TalkSport, Virgin Radio, Classic FM, Planet Rock, Birdsong.

Apart form that small point, I quite like the new name and am looking forward to hearing the new sound. I hope they keep their promise of broadening the playlist.

And what’s so neat — as you identify — is that ‘Absoulte’ works rather well as a ‘definitive’ way of describing the station — much like GMG’s ‘Real’ brand’s been doing these last few years.

And to have the former, without the latter, would probably mean ending up with Aardvark Radio. (Might work for an animation firm, not for a bloke’s radio station!)