The music station will revert to its original name, which was dropped in 2008.
Renamed Virgin Radio in 2008, the music station Europe 2 will return to its original name from Sunday, in the hope of (re) conquering 25-49 year olds who love pop-rock and boosting audiences at their lowest. .
The brand inaugurated in the 1980s will thus resume its rights on New Year’s Eve, “in line“Changes started in September, explained to AFP Stéphane Bosc, general manager of Lagardère musical radio stations, also owner of Europe 1 and RFM. This return to basics was announced this summer by the private group, whose main shareholder is Vivendi, and has since been validated by Arcom.
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The station’s morning worker and columnist for “Do not touch My TV“(C8), Guillaume Genton, will keep the controls of the”Morning without filter“, which succeeded at the start of the school year to the “Virgin Tonicby Manu Payet. He will celebrate the new year on Sunday in the presence of Louise Attaque, Adé or even Pierre de Maere, faithful to the pop-rock repositioning and “new scene» French programming, less focused on electro, according to Stéphane Bosc.
Audiences at their lowest
Host Mikl will still be in charge of the station’s evenings, divided into two new shows, “Europe 2 Lab», with interview of artists, concerts… from 8 to 10 p.m., followed by «Happy Rock Hours” until midnight. “We wanted to return to a strong brand that belongs to us” and an “common platformwith Europe 1, explains Stéphane Bosc. It was also about stopping paying money to Richard Branson’s global empire for the exploitation of the Virgin name, with which Lagardère had hoped to invest in digital and expand its audience.
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According to Médiamétrie, over the September-October period, Virgin Radio recorded a historic low, with a cumulative audience (AC) of 2.6% and an audience share (PDA, scrutinized by advertisers) of 1.6 %, far behind the other pop-rock station, RTL 2 (3.9% and 3.2%). “If we could go back to 4.5% cumulative audience and 3.5% PDA, I would be delighted“says Stéphane Bosc. “But that will take time“, he warns, giving a horizon of three years.
At a time when the radio medium, weakened by the pandemic and challenged by streaming, is losing listeners, Europe 2 intends, according to him, to refocus on 25-49 year olds, rather than “fish in a lake empty of fishby aiming for 13-24.
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