1215 AM / 105.8 FM London · United Kingdom
Virgin Radio countdowns
Britain's national rock station, 1993-2008
RockLists holds 17 countdowns from Virgin Radio: ten year-end countdowns covering 1993–2002 and seven all-time, decade and special countdowns, totaling 2,400 chart positions. The station’s first year-end number one on record is “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. (1993); its most recent is “By the Way” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (2002).
Year-end countdowns
Countdown series
All-time countdowns
- All-time countdown · 2001 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
- All-time countdown · 2004 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
- All-time countdown · 2005 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
- All-time countdown · 2005 Top 100 Brit Songs of All-Time (May 2005)
- All-time countdown · 2006 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2006)
Top artists countdowns
Special countdowns
Every Virgin Radio year-end number one
About Virgin Radio
Virgin Radio was the United Kingdom's national commercial rock station from 1993 until it became Absolute Radio in 2008. RockLists archives its Top 10 songs of each year from 1993 to 2002, four editions of its Top 500 Songs of All-Time, the Top 100 Brit Songs and Brit Artists of All-Time and the VR10x10 tenth-anniversary countdown.
Richard Branson launched Virgin Radio on April 30, 1993, as a national rock station on 1215 AM, adding an FM frequency in London (105.8) in 1995. The station was sold to Chris Evans' Ginger Media Group in 1997 and then to Scottish Media Group in 2000, and its playlist mixed classic rock with the Britpop and alternative hits of the day.
Virgin Radio's countdowns were among the largest in British commercial radio. Its Top 500 Songs of All-Time, voted by listeners each December, is archived here for 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006, and the station marked its tenth anniversary in April 2003 with the VR10x10 countdown of the top songs from each of its first ten years.
SMG sold the station to the Times of India group in 2008, and because the Virgin name was not part of the deal it was relaunched as Absolute Radio that September. An unrelated Virgin Radio UK returned to the British airwaves on digital radio in 2016.
- Call letters
- Virgin Radio
- Frequency
- 1215 AM / 105.8 FM London
- Market
- United Kingdom
- Owner
- SMG plc (Scottish Media Group)
- Format
- Rock / Adult Alternative
- Format since
- 1993–2008
- More
- Wikipedia
- Ranked with
- Alternative & Modern Rock
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