Onward Virgin soldiers

The ghost of Chris Evans returned to haunt Virgin Radio last week when his successor, Steve Penk, unexpectedly quit. Penk, a former Capital Radio DJ, walked out on the breakfast show just seven months after taking over from Evans, who himself was sacked for breach of contract. The upheaval comes at a critical period in the station's nine-year history. So what is going on at Virgin?

The station's audience has slumped by nearly a million since the start of 1999, and its market share has fallen by nearly a third to 2.4 per cent. As a result of the slump in national advertising, analysts expect operating profits for 2001 to be around £12 million, about 20 per cent down on the previous year. On top of all that, Evans - who sold his Ginger Media Group (including Virgin) to the Scottish Media Group for £225 million two years ago - is suing his old bosses for £8.6 million compensation for lost share issues.

So did Penk jump or was he pushed? He had only just joined Virgin from Capital when he was transferred from drivetime to breakfast in the aftermath of Evans's departure-When the audience failed to respond - the latest listening figures are published tomorrow - Virgin acted with familiar speed and ruthlessness. Harriet Scott was installed as his co-host; Penk disagreed with the changes and quit. Negotiations continue between the station and the DJ, who has been offered back his drivetime slot.

It is this ruthlessness, say Virgin's critics, that lies behind its inability to build a more stable and loyal audience. "Virgin is a hungry commercial animal," says former breakfast-show producer Richard Kilgarriff, now in charge of Cartoon Network in the UK. "It is good at bringing in on-air talent, but not very good at keeping it."

A former presenter adds: "They don't let anything bed down. Its programming and music policy is always chopping and changing."

The same is true of its programming executives. Virgin chief executive John Pearson is becoming the radio equivalent of Aston Villa's Doug Ellis: he has had at least eight programme directors so far. During the same period, Radio 1 has had just two controllers, Matthew Bannister and Andy Parfitt. Virgin's longest-serving programme chief, Mark Story, now in charge of Emap Radio, says of the Penk episode: "Steve is a nice guy and a very good DJ, but his breakfast show didn't have enough quality control."

The breakfast show isn't the only part of Virgin being reinvented. Programme director Paul Jackson has also announced a "no repeat workday" policy in which no song is played twice between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. A similar scheme was introduced by Jackson when he was at Capital's Century Radio, although it has since been abandoned.

Jackson, seven months into the job, says he is now close to finalising his ideal Virgin line-up.

Penk has been replaced by national newcomer Daryl Denham, who only joined Virgin this month. It is the station's fourth line-up in eight months in the key morning slot. Jackson has also raided the Capital Group for late-night DJ Jezza, who will host a talk-heavy late-night slot. "If you ask people on the street about Virgin Radio, they still say Chris Evans," Jackson explains. "We are reinventing ourselves completely. Daryl Denham has got a great pedigree and is exactly what we are after. I am very much for giving a chance to fresh, young talented people who are hungry.

"I am confident we have got the right people now. We are not making changes for change's sake, and we now have to be more consistent. If we are still making changes in a year's time we are never going to get it."

The key for Jackson will be whether local radio stars such as Sony Award-winning Denham - recruited from Birmingham's Heart 100.7FM - prove more successful than Penk in pulling in listeners nationally. Will Jackson get the time to find out? "Programme directors these days have the lifespan of a third division football manager," argues one commercial-radio executive. "You have got to turn things round quickly or you are out on your ear." For Jackson and Virgin Radio, the really hard work starts now.