Virgin chief executive Hazlitt quits

Fru Hazlitt has resigned as chief executive at Virgin Radio after just 17 months in the role without a job to go to, and is said to be seeking venture capital support for a bid for GCap Media.

According to industry sources, Hazlitt, who is to be replaced at Virgin Radio by programme director Paul Jackson, is canvassing the City for a funding partner for her audacious bid.
Hazlitt is thought to have been unsettled at Virgin Radio since last summer, when a bid for parent company SMG by UTV surfaced.
SMG's future ownership remains unclear as merger talks continue between SMG and UTV, and the company currently has no permanent chief executive. Hazlitt is thought to have applied for that job, but the search has been put on hold.
On announcing her departure from Virgin Radio, Hazlitt said she had other things in her life that she wants to achieve. "It's time for me to move on," she said.
Industry insiders had been predicting her departure, saying she had been frustrated at the lack of investment made in the station by owners SMG.
New chief executive Jackson has been at Virgin for more than five years and took on the role temporarily in 2005 when Hazlitt was on maternity leave from Yahoo! before joining the station.
Speaking exclusively to Media Week following the announcement, Jackson, who has a programming background and is the son of BBC's Fame Academy judge and Magic programme director Richard Park, said he has "the station running through my veins".
"I worked very closely with Fru and the plans we have in place now are those set in stone months ago, so there will be no radical changes at the station," he said.
Formerly regional programme director at Capital Radio, Jackson, who is now "musing" on his replacement, denied a merger with UTV would have any serious effect on the station. "We have to keep ourselves rooted in the present and if we get lost thinking about the merger, we take our eye off the ball," he said.
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