08 13 w 51.512248 n 0.136937 w 51.512248 ; 0.136937 absolute radio broadcast area united kingdom national am dab ; london west midlands fm branding absolute . slogan where real music matters the home of the no repeat guarantee frequency 1215 khz am variants 105.2 mhz w. midlands 105.8 mhz g. london dab digital one 11d england wales & northern ireland 12a scotland sky 0107 virgin media 915 freeview 727 freesat 724 orbit network 127 usen japan cg3 first air date 30 april 1993 virgin 29 september 2008 absolute format modern adult contemporary audience share 1.2 % national 2.3 % london december 2012 1 owner bauer radio sister stations absolute siblings heat radio the hits kerrang radio kiss magic planet rock website absolute radio absolute radio is one of the uk s three independent national radio stations . the station rebranded to its current name at 7 45 am on 29 september 2008 . 2 3 the station is based in london and plays popular rock music . it currently broadcasts on medium wave and dab across the uk on 105.8 fm in london and 105.2 fm in the west midlands sky channel 0107 virgin media channel 915 freeview channel 727 and freesat channel 724 . it is also available in other parts of the world via satellite cable and on the internet . as of 31 december 2013 international streaming via the internet has been discontinued . 4 absolute radio is a patron of the radio academy . 5 absolute radio is owned and operated by bauer radio of hamburg based bauer media group it forms part of bauer s national portfolio of radio brands . contents 1 history 1.1 1993 1997 virgin radio launch and early years 1.2 1998 2000 the ginger media group 1.3 2000 2008 smg ownership 1.4 2008 2013 acquisition by times of india and rebranding as absolute radio 1.5 2013 present acquisition by bauer media 2 programming 2.1 audience and playlist 2.2 notable djs 2.2.1 weekdays 2.2.2 weekends 2.3 notable former presenters 2.4 sport 3 broadcast 3.1 studios 3.2 am transmission 3.3 fm transmission 3.4 satellite distribution 4 website and internet broadcasting 5 sister stations 5.1 absolute classic rock 5.2 absolute radio 60s 5.3 absolute radio 70s 5.4 absolute radio 80s 5.5 absolute radio 90s 5.6 absolute radio 00s 5.7 former spin off stations 5.7.1 dabbl 5.7.2 virgin radio groove 5.7.3 liquid 5.7.4 virgin radio party classics 5.7.5 absolute xtreme 5.7.6 virgin radio viva cancelled 6 references 7 bibliography 8 external links history edit 1993 1997 virgin radio launch and early years edit no 1 golden square with virgin radio branding 1993 2008 . the 1990 broadcasting act allowed for the launch of independent national radio inr stations in the united kingdom . 6 the radio authority was mandated to award three inr licences one of which inr1 had to be for a non pop station which was awarded to classic fm and one of which had to be for a predominantly speech based service this would be advertised later as inr3 and would be awarded to talk radio . the remaining licence was to be open to all comers . the licences were to be awarded to the highest cash bidder providing that the applicant met criteria set down in the broadcasting act . 7 the second national licence inr2 would take over the 1197 khz and 1215 khz frequencies which were to be relinquished by bbc radio 3 . 8 the licence was advertised in october 1991 9 and five organisations bid the independent national broadcasting company of sheffield which bid 4 010 000 per year ; a tv am virgin consortium 1 883 000 ; chiltern radio s 20 20 radio 1 311 000 ; radio clyde s score radio 701 000 ; and a consortium of clt harvey goldsmith and rt 211 000 . 8 the tv am virgin consortium was awarded the licence in april 1992 after the radio authority said that it was not satisfied that independent national broadcasting would be able to sustain the service . 10 later that year tv am lost its itv license 11 and its stake in the radio station was sold in march 1993 12 to apax partners jp morgan investment corporation and sir david frost . 13 14 the station launched as virgin 1215 at 12.15 pm on 30 april 1993 . 15 the original line up of djs included richard skinner russ williams jono coleman mitch johnson graham dene nick abbot wendy lloyd tommy rivers emperor rosko and dave fanning . chris evans was also hired to present a saturday morning show following his success at bbc glr in the weekend mid morning slot . the show the big red mug show was sponsored by nescafe . the first song was a cover version of the steppenwolf song born to be wild recorded by australian group inxs . richard branson was the first voice to be heard live from the virgin megastore in manchester with richard skinner the first voice back in the london studios . 16 skinner was also programme director a role he shared with john revell . 17 john pearson formerly sales director of lbc was launch sales director . andy mollett was launch finance director . david campbell previously managing director of one of virgin s post production television companies 18 was the chief executive at launch . 12 from before its launch on am virgin radio was campaigning for a national fm network . initially it lobbied for radio 4 s fm network to be made available 19 and then when the radio authority launched a consultation on the use of the 105 108 mhz band 20 it lobbied for it to be set aside as a national network . 21 the radio authority decided however that 105 108 mhz would be licensed to new local and regional stations 22 and virgin radio applied for 23 and won one of the new fm licences advertised in london as a result . 24 virgin radio launched on 105.8 mhz fm in london on 10 april 1995 25 beginning with a message from broadcaster david frost at 6 am followed by the russ n jono breakfast show . part of the licence requirements for the london service meant that a daily london opt out was broadcast on fm presented initially by rowland rivron . 26 within a year virgin group was considering the next steps for the radio station including the option of a flotation 27 or buying back the shares of jp morgan apax and sir david frost . 14 in may 1997 it was announced that capital radio had agreed to acquire virgin radio in an 87 million deal . 28 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 . 29 the radio authority approved the acquisition 30 but nigel griffiths the consumer affairs minister referred the takeover to the monopolies and mergers commission mmc . 31 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 . 32 however the delay in approval of the capital acquisition would ultimately lead to the deal not going through . in january 1997 chris evans had left his role as presenter of the radio 1 breakfast show as a result of a disagreement between him and the programme controller matthew bannister chris had asked for fridays off to allow more time for him to work on his channel 4 television show tfi friday . 33 34 evans was keen to return to radio . 35 indeed it was reported that his agent michael foster had approached matthew bannister to ask if chris would be allowed to be return to radio 1 36 and he had gone as far as commencing negotiations to buy talk radio . 37 richard branson wanted evans to work for virgin radio so much so that he joined him on a concorde flight to new york to try to persuade him to join as the drive time presenter . 38 39 in the end virgin radio hired evans to present the breakfast show replacing the incumbent russ n jono show presented by russ williams and jonathan coleman . his show started on 13 october 1997 the same day that zo ball started as evans replacement on radio 1 . 40 the initial contract would only be for ten weeks until the mmc announced its decision on the capital radio takeover . 39 evans approached david campbell to discuss buying the radio station and with michael foster s help they put together a deal to buy the radio station with venture capital supplied by apax partners and paribas with virgin group retaining a 20 % stake in the business . 41 the deal was announced on 8 december 1997 and would see the formation of the ginger media group an umbrella company overseeing virgin radio and producing programmes such as tfi friday . 42 43 1998 2000 the ginger media group edit evans ownership of virgin radio started well with a breakfast show audience increase of 660 000 to 2.2 m in his first three months . 44 in august 1998 chris evans took a spur of the moment decision one weekend to launch a saturday afternoon show called rock n roll football a show that is still broadcast on absolute radio . 45 from 5 october 1998 virgin radio started 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 would see a video at the same time . 26 46 the start of the new football season in august 1999 saw terry venables join russ williams in a show that would precede rock n roll football . 26 at the end of 1999 in response to the tv programme who wants to be a millionaire not having given away its top prize virgin radio set a broadcasting first when clare barwick won 1 million at the culmination of someone s going to be a millionaire . 26 47 the management team at the ginger media group were considering expansion opportunities including a plan to acquire the daily star newspaper from united news & media and hire piers morgan to edit it . their plans were stalled however when the shareholders got cold feet . evans wrote in his autobiography that the management wanted to stick to our original brief of expansion whereas our investors only cared about extracting the added value . 45 2000 2008 smg ownership edit the management team therefore set themselves on a strategy to sell the business three years ahead of schedule . 45 they hired goldman sachs to run the sale process and considered a public flotation 48 before selling to the scottish media group now stv group plc for 225 million in march 2000 . 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 . 49 evans was subsequently fired by his new employer in 2001 for failing to report into work for five consecutive days while reportedly partying with his then wife billie piper . 50 chief executive john pearson who had been with the station since before launch resigned in april 2005 51 and was replaced by fru hazlitt who had previously been managing director of yahoo uk and ireland . 52 on 13 june 2006 smg plc signed a deal with yoomedia to make virgin radio available on freeview . it has always placed a great emphasis on other methods of transmission than