SMG, the Scottish TV and radio group, is expected to announce the appointment of Richard Huntingford as executive chairman of Virgin Radio today and say there is no plan for an autumn float of the radio business, The Times has learnt.

The appointment is a U-turn in strategy because SMG has been talking to headhunters for the past two weeks about finding a new chief executive to lead an IPO, following the departure of Paul Jackson.

SMG, which announces half-year results today, is understood to have decided earlier this week that Mr Huntingford, Virgin Radio’s nonexecutive chairman, who is a former chief executive of Chrysalis Group, would be well placed to run the business. He will now assume a full-time position and be responsible for the day-to-day running of Virgin Radio.

SMG has said in recent weeks that, although it is carrying out a dual process in which either a sale or a float is possible, its preferred route is an IPO, which it said could happen in the autumn.

It is understood that a flotation is no longer the favoured route and SMG is equally open to a future sale. Sources familiar with the company believe an IPO is likely to be postponed for a while because of difficult market conditions and uncertainty about how much freedom Virgin Radio will have to use the Virgin brand.

It is thought that one of the first things Mr Huntingford plans to do when he gets his feet under the table is to enter discussions with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. If Virgin Radio is sold to a trade buyer rather than floated, Virgin Group has the option to revoke the company’s licence to use the brand.

The ability to exploit the Virgin Radio brand through events and other means is likely to be the concern of potential future buyers or investors.

Mr Huntingford will need to find out how much flexibility he will have with the brand if Virgin Radio is eventually floated and how potential buyers would be able to use the Virgin name.

A sign that Mr Huntingford would soon take on a more serious role at Virgin Radio came yesterday when his former Chrysalis colleague, David Lloyd, was made programming director of Virgin Radio.

Mr Lloyd, the former LBC managing director, left the station last month as part of a management reshuffle by its new owner, Global Radio. He fills a role that has effectively been vacant since the former programme director, Paul Jackson, became chief executive at the beginning of the year.

Mr Jackson resigned in August after only months in the chief executive’s job to become managing director of GCap’s London station, Capital Radio. He is still working out his notice.

SMG refused to comment.

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