Timeline of Absolute Radio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A timeline of notable events relating to Absolute Radio and its spin-off stations, and its predecessor Virgin 1215/Virgin Radio.

Virgin Radio[]

1990s[]

1990

1991

1992

  • 29 February – BBC Radio 3 stops broadcasting on 1197 kHz and 1215 kHz MW.
  • April – The Radio Authority awards the second Independent National Radio licence to Independent Music Radio, a consortium jointly owned by TV-am and Virgin Communications.[5] There had been four other applicants for the licence.

1993

1994

  • January – Gary Davies joins the station to present the Sunday morning Classic Tracks show.
  • Having been unsuccessful at trying to obtain BBC Radio 4's FM frequencies, the station tries to persuade The Radio Authority to allocate the recently available 105–108 MHz part of the FM waveband to a fourth INR licence as part of a renewed bid to broadcast nationally on FM.[13]
  • 29 June – Following its failure to persuade The Radio Authority to use 105–108 MHz FM for a new commercial national station, Virgin Radio applies for one of the new licenses to broadcast to London.[14]
  • 8 October – Virgin Radio is awarded one of the new London-wide FM licences.[15]

1995

  • 10 April – Virgin Radio starts broadcasting on FM in London. The station is a full simulcast of the national service apart from a 45-minute weekday early evening programme, presented initially by Rowland Rivron.[16][17]
  • April – To coincide with the launch of Virgin London, the national station is renamed as Virgin Radio.
  • 3 December – Following a brief sabbatical, Gary Davies returns to take over the Sunday late show.

1996

  • 7 March – Virgin Radio launches its first website.[18][19]
  • 15 March – Alan Freeman joins the station to present a new Friday night rock show.
  • 3 August – Lynn Parsons joins the station to present the weekend early evening show.
  • October – Richard Skinner, who presented the first show, leaves the station. Graham Dene replaces Richard as the presenter of the weekday morning show.

1997

  • May – It is announced that Capital Radio has agreed to acquire Virgin Radio in an £87 million deal.[20] 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.[21] The Radio Authority approved the acquisition,[22] but Nigel Griffiths, the Consumer Affairs Minister, referred the takeover to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC).[23] 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 left out of the deal.[24] The delay in approval of the Capital acquisition ultimately leads to the deal not going through.
  • 26 September – Alan Freeman presents his final rock show for Virgin Radio.[25]
  • 13 October – Chris Evans rejoins the station to take over the breakfast show from Russ Williams who moves to Drivetime before being transferred to the mid-morning show in early 1998.
  • 9 December – Chris Evans's media production company, Ginger Media Group, buys Virgin Radio from Richard Branson for £85m. Branson had planned to sell the station to Capital Radio, but Evans, who had not wanted to work for the station, launched a rival bid.[26][27]

1998

  • August – Virgin Radio launches a new Saturday afternoon football show called Rock 'n' Roll Football.[28]
  • 5 October – Virgin Radio starts 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 see the track's video at the same time.[16][29]
  • Lynn Parsons leaves.

1999

  • January – Gary Davies takes over the weeknight late show.
  • 7 February – Danny Baker joins the station to present a Saturday morning show. He replaces Jonathan Ross.
  • 15 November – Virgin Radio starts broadcasting on DAB digital radio following the launch of the UK's first national commercial multiplex Digital One.
  • 17 December – Britain's first million pounds prize is given away, on a segment of Chris Evans's Virgin breakfast show called Someone's Going to be a Millionaire (a reference to ITV's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which at the time has not had a million pound winner).

2000s[]

2000

  • March – Scottish Media Group (now STV Group plc) buys Virgin Radio for £225 million. The Scottish Media Group, which owned Scottish Television and the Herald newspaper, fought off other bidders including Clear Channel, NRJ and Guardian Media. Evans personally made £75 million out of the sale.[30]
  • April – Leona Graham joins.
  • 26 June – The Groove launches. Virgin Radio Classic Rock also launches in 2000.
  • October – Clive Warren joins to present the Sunday afternoon show.
  • 14 December – Gary Davies leaves[31] and in the new year Clive Warren replaces him as presenter of the weeknight late show.
  • Danny Baker leaves.

2001

  • 28 June – Chris Evans was dismissed for repeatedly failing to arrive at work. Evans was replaced by the older Steve Penk, whom Evans criticised for his age – 39 versus Evans's then 35.[32] Evans subsequently attempted to sue Virgin Radio, claiming that he was unfairly dismissed and denied share options worth £8.6 million,[33] but in 2003 was found to have been fairly dismissed and not entitled to the share options.[34]

2002

  • 28 January – Less than a month after joining the station, Daryl Denham takes over the breakfast show from Steve Penk. presented the 6 am – 10 am Breakfast Show,[35]
  • 1 July – Jeremy Kyle joins the station to present a weeknight show called Jezza's Virgin Confessions. He replaces Clive Warren who had left the station at the start of 2002.

2003

2004

2005

  • 5 September – Virgin Xtreme launches. The station plays modern rock music.
  • December – Richard Skinner leaves Virgin Radio Classic Rock when the station dispenses with live programming.
  • 16 December – Pete and Geoff present the breakfast show for the final time.

2006

2007

  • 3 August – Tony Hadley replaces Suggs as host of Virgin Radio's Party Classics show.[38]
  • 30 November – Less than a year after taking over the afternoon show, Suggs leaves the station. He is replaced by Drive presenter Neil Francis with Nick Jackson moving from weekends to take over Drivetime.[39]

2008

  • 6 January – Iain Lee[40] and JK and Joel[41] join the station to present weekend shows.
  • 4 April – Virgin Radio Groove stops broadcasting.
  • 30 May – SMG sells Virgin Radio to TIML Golden Square Limited, a subsidiary of The Times Group for £53.2 million with £15 million set aside for rebranding. As part of the deal, Absolute Radio International, which operates two FM licences in Oxford, will manage the station.[42][43]
  • 1 September – The station's new owners announce that Virgin Radio will be rebranded as Absolute Radio at the end of the month.[44]
  • 25 September – The final edition of The Geoff Show is broadcast. JK and Joel also leave at around the same time.[45]

Absolute Radio[]

2000s[]

2008

  • 29 September – At 7:45 am Virgin Radio is relaunched as Absolute Radio and sister station Virgin Classic Rock is renamed Absolute Classic Rock.

2009

  • March – Frank Skinner joins the station to host the Saturday breakfast show. The programme has initially only been planned to last 12 weeks but was extended due to its popularity.[46] The show is still running with both Emily Dean and Alun Cochrane.[47][48]
  • 1 October – Absolute Xtreme closes and a 'user-controlled' station called Dabbl launches.[49]
  • 12 November – Iain Lee replaces Ben Jones as presenter of the weeknight late show. Consequently Sunday Night Show ends.
  • 4 December – Absolute Radio 80s launches although DAB carriage is restricted to a part-time slot in London.[50]

2010s[]

2010

2011

  • 29 July – Ben Jones leaves after a decade at Virgin Radio/Absolute Radio.[56]
  • 18 October – Iain Lee leaves.[57]
  • 1 November Frank Skinner's Saturday morning show starts to be simulcast across the decades-only stations and Absolute Classic Rock with different music played on each station between the links.[58]
  • 22 November – Absolute Radio 60s launches.[59]
  • 29 November – Absolute Radio 70s launches. The first show is presented by Richard Skinner, who had launched Virgin 1215 18 years earlier.

2012

2013

2014

  • No events.

2015

  • 5 January – Absolute Radio changes from broadcasting in stereo to mono to make way for Magic on the Digital One multiplex.[63] Also, Absolute 90s is removed from the Digital One multiplex.
  • 9 February – Absolute 70s starts broadcasting on free-to-air satellite.
  • 2 April – Absolute 80s announces that it will begin airing classic charts from the 1980s in the 4.00–7.00pm Sunday slot vacated by Radio 1. The show, hosted by Martyn Lee, will begin in May.[64]
  • 28 April – Russ Williams announces that he will be leaving his mid-morning show on Absolute Radio after presenting the programme for 20 years.[65]
  • July – Danielle Perry joins the station to present the weekday mid-afternoon show.[66]
  • 7 September – Absolute Radio starts broadcasting on FM in the West Midlands, replacing Planet Rock.[67]

2016

  • 29 February – Absolute 80s moves from Digital One to the newly launched Sound Digital multiplex although it continued to broadcast on Digital One until the end of April 2016.[68]
  • May – One of the station's original presenters Russ Williams leaves at the end of the 2015/16 football season. He had ended his 23 years at the station presenting the Saturday afternoon programme Rock and Roll Football which ends following Absolute Radio's decision to drop its coverage of Premier League football.

2017

2018

  • 29 January – Absolute 90s returns to the Digital One multiplex.
  • May – Bauer announces that it will switch off a number of Absolute Radio's filler transmitters and reduce power at five of its main transmitters. This will reduce the station's reach on MW from 90% to 85%.
  • 18 May – Christian O'Connell presents the breakfast show for the final time.[71][72]
  • 21 May – Pete Donaldson replaces Dave Berry as presenter of the weekday "Hometime" show. Dave is to become the new breakfast show presenter.
  • 23 May – Absolute 70s ends radio transmission and becomes an on-line station. It had previously been available on DAB in London and on free-to-air satellite.[73]
  • 4 June – Dave Berry takes over the breakfast show.
  • 24 September – Andy Bush and Richie Firth replace Pete Donaldson as presenters of the Hometime show.[74]
  • 23 October – Launch of Jack Radio on DAB, a station from the Absolute Radio team and the first radio station to have a playlist made up entirely of female artists. Jack will also feature female sports and material from female stand-up comedians.[75]
  • 17 December – Absolute Radio stops broadcasting on FM in the West Midlands. The frequency will be transferred to Greatest Hits Radio.[76]

2019

2020s[]

2020

  • 24 February – Absolute Radio 20s launches and also operates exclusively online.[79]
  • 8 May – A one-off pop up station called Absolute Radio 40s broadcasts on 1215 MW and online to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day.[80] The service was also made available over DAB+ in London, replaced the following day by Absolute Radio 00s.
  • 18 October – Skunk Anansie singer Skin joins the station to present "The Skin Show", which airs Sunday nights 10pm-12am.[81]

2021

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