We recently heard from someone who works at Bell Media who told us when they bought Astral they sadly had to have the contract for the Virgin radio stations. Word has it Bell wants out of the contract because some of the Virgin stations don’t do well enough. Although they’ve tried making lots of changes to improve the sound, it looks like they are now trying to pull the plug on the contract over the next 12 months or so… We’re talking about the Virgin Branding, not necessarily selling the radio stations.
I cant’ speak for other cities, but this is a good move for Vancouver. I highly doubt that Virgin 2.0 (94.5) has garnered the same brand recognition as its predecessor on 95.3. It would make sense to transition the station back to The Beat, and might even provide fuel for a new promotion.
Virgin is a terrible brand. It’s a sissy sounding brand for girls. The Beat in Vancouver was far more successful, now it’s losing it’s audience. Virgin was hot in the 90’s.. now it’s nothing more than a bad fad.
90’s maybe as an airline. VIRGIN hit Canada only in the last 10 years or so…. Am I wrong?
Losing it’s audience? Not sure if you’ve looked at the fall ppm book released last week. Virgin radio is #2 behind QMFM in almost every single key demo right now. Amazing results for a CHR in a terrible pop music cycle the past few months. Not saying the Virgin brand has anything to do with the results…it’s the sound of the station that sets them apart. With a marquee morning show and a cycle now with Bieber, Adele, and Rihanna back soon, expect even bigger things from CFBT in 2016.
Virgin Vancouver does very well. Virgin Montreal is a Powerhouse. The rest seem irrelevant. What do you do in those markets? Bottom line, it’s costing Bell lots of money to use the brand.