Virgin Radio 1215 AM Review

Overall Rating

No cheesy pop or RnB

Same music, same bands, all the time, nothing remotely challenging or unusual, just AOR/MOR 24 hours a day.

Virgin is ok. It's reasonably inoffensive and ok as background music. None of the DJs are particularly annoying in that they don't tend to SHOUT A LOT LIKE ON SOME STATIONS and you just don't notice them much. Mainly the music is pretty middle of the road - loads of Beatles, Stones, Bowie, David Grey, KT Tunstall, the Kaiser Chiefs, U2, Coldplay, Stereophonics, etc. The problem is, mostly, that they play the same songs ad infinitum - classic hits. With so much to choose from, they always choose the same stuff. Once a new song is popular, for example, "I Predict A Riot" by the Kaiser Chiefs, on other stations, Virgin waits until the song has actually left the chart and the band in question releases a new single, in this case "Oh My God," before putting that older song onto their playlist forever. I've noticed that they play the same bands at the same times of day every day as well. Here's the thing: I have a really cheap shower radio which until XFM Manchester launched last year, only got about 3 stations (now it gets 4) - Galaxy 102, which I can't abide, Talk Sport, which is not my thing, and Virgin. So I used to play Virgin while having a shower in the morning. Every morning for 2 years I heard the same 5 or 6 bands - Bowie ('Ashes to Ashes' or 'Heroes'), Stereophonics ('Have a Nice Day' or 'Handbags and Gladrags', both of which songs make me psychotic with rage at their irritating-ness), Rolling Stones ('Sympathy for the Devil' or 'Satisfaction' which I loathe!) David Gray ('This Year's Love' or 'Babylon'), KT Tunstall ('Black Horse and the Cherry Tree'), Coldplay ('The Scientist' or 'Clocks'), Snow Patrol ('Spitting Games' or 'Chocolate'), etc. Always the same songs. It was ok for a while, I mean occasionally they throw you a bone of something different, but eventually it makes you lose the will to live. Change is good. Challenge is good. Hearing songs you don't hear everyday is good.