Your wavelengths tonight
The quarterly report from RAJAR came out this week, giving the listening figures for the three months to last December. The cited figures are for reach (listeners per week - millions for national stations, percentage for locals) and average hours per person per week. The figures are on a weighted average over the past six ratings periods, going back to Q3 '04. For comparison, the last analysis is also around.
National stations
Radio 2 remains the nation's favourite, with 13.2 million listeners, and 3h29 per head. Radio 1 has now made three surveys above 10 million listeners, something not seen for some years. The station averages out at 10.1m / 1h55. Radio 4 is slightly down to 9.4m / 2h29.
Classic FM is now in fourth place by average reach, 6.05m / 0h55. Radio 5 has dropped just below, to 5.95m, but still attracts more hours overall - an average of 0h58 per person per week.
Kiss remains the quiet success story, still the second biggest commercial radio station in the UK at 2.35m / 0h15, even though it is only available regionally. Talkshit (2.17m / 0h23) has national distribution, and pulls in the hours, but can't rise above this level however hard it tries.
Radio 3 comes next, 2.03m / 0h15 in a quarter that didn't have too much stand-out programming. Virgin continues to slowly lose listeners, now down to 1.80m / 0h12. Maybe getting a wider range of CDs would help. World Service (1.28m / 0h08) falls back slightly from its summer position, but is still moving up the lists. At the current rate, WS will be overtaking Virgin in about four years, and that will be embarrassing.
After a good quarter last time, Xfm (662,000 / 0h05) returns to the mean, remaining ahead of BBC-7 (508,000 / 0h03) and Asian Network (465,000 / 0h03).
Of the digital-only stations, Planet Rock (303,000 / 0h02) remains just ahead of 6 Music (291,000 / 0h02).Primetime (168,000 / 0h02) will close at the end of May, just as it was beginning to take off. Oneword (122,000 / 0h01) has begun to invest in its own programming, though we reckon new owners Channel 4 are spending as much on a month's programming as they give away each day on Deal or No Deal
. Core (109,000 / 0h01) more than doubled its hours this quarter. Life (77,000 / 0h01) will merge with the Capital Gold brand. The Arrow (65,000 / 0h01) and Cube (48,000 / 0h00) continue to prop up the category.
BBC local radio
Shropshire (29% / 3h33) remains top of the league, ahead of Hereford & Worcester (25%, 2h41). Leicester (22%, 2h31) is still losing hours but not listeners. Oxford (17%, 1h48) looks to have stabilised from recent losses, while Gloucestershire (16%, 1h54) has lost listeners but gained hours. The new and more local WM (15%, 1h48) will show a loss, because Coventry and Warwickshire (15%, 1h42) came on air in September, and has gained a third more hours this time round. Analogue Asian Network (5%, 0h22) accounts for over two-thirds of the national total - approximately 50% of the listening is in the West Midlands area.
Commercial local radio
Starting with the regionals, and Heart 100.7 (25%, 2h09) is still down on a year ago, showing its shift to target a younger audience wasn't brilliant. Saga West Mids (12%, 1h26) hasn't profited, but Kerrang (8%, 0h37) records its least-worst figures yet. In the East Mids, Heart 106 (16%, 1h28) has managed to lose 10% of its listeners and 20% of its hours in half a year, but again Saga East Mids (12%, 1h27) stands still.
Of the heritage ILRs, Beacon (21%, 1h51) continues to plough a similar furrow. Mercia (30%, 2h14) has lost quite significantly. Fox (34%, 3h17) is still a mile ahead of all competition in Oxfordshire. BRMB (26%, 2h08) is on the up-swing, the "Better Song" strapline has come with a stable schedule. Wyvern (25%, 2h14) records a particularly poor quarter, which will probably right itself next time.
The leading incremental FM station is still Rugby (42%, 4h14). Centre (21%, 2h00) is slightly down, Fosseway (17%, 1h45) and The Wolf (15%, 1h02) hold steady. Galaxy (17%, 1h22) is also bobbling along, but Kix 96 (22%, 1h14) and The Bear (25%. 2h45) suffered a pointless re-naming earlier this month - expect both to suffer.
Finally, the AM services. Xtra-AM (3%, 0h17) and Mercia-AM (5%, 0h34) are both slipping slightly. WABC (3%, 0h18) is slightly up.
There are no RAJAR returns for Muff Murfin's stations Sunshine or Classic Gold Wyvern, for Radio XL, or for new station The Wyre.
posted 06 Feb 2006, 19.46 +0000
