Heart 106.2 FM Reclaims Breakfast Crown In London

Heart 106.2 FM reclaimed its crown in the London Breakfast battle, overtaking 95.8 Capital Radio to scoop the top spot, with a rise in weekly reach of 6.6% year on year and almost 6% period on period, according to the latest data from RAJAR.

Cheeky Jamie Theakston and bubbly Harriet Scott brought Heart 106.2 FM’s weekly reach to almost 875,000 in the capital, whilst its GCap-owned rival’s reach sits at 836,000 following a year on year drop for Johnny Vaughan’s show of almost 2% and a quarter on quarter fall of over 2%.

As well as the indefatigable Dr Fox, the £1 million TV advertising campaign that was shown on Channel 4, ITV and Five throughout May and June (see Magic 105.4 To Launch TV Ad Campaign), appeared to have been successful for Emap’s Magic 105.4 which saw its weekly reach bolstered by more than 14% period on period and 2.5% year on year.

Meanwhile, Kiss 100 FM bolstered its reach by 18% from Q1 to Q2, but saw a year on year drop of almost 2.5% to leave its total at 688,000.

Despite a quarter on quarter dip of just under 9%, BBC London 94.9 recorded a year on year rise of more than 13% to take its reach to over 230,000 Londoners, whilst the outspoken Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3 helped the station’s weekly reach shoot up 16% year on year and almost 7.5% period on period.

Ferrari’s show’s reach now sits at just under 410,000 in the capital, whilst LBC News 1152 dropped to 155,000 after a period on period fall of more than 20%. However, it was up year on year by more than 53%.

Total Virgin Radio London, which now represents all analogue and digital listening in the capital for the brand following a new methodology of reporting for Q2, reports a weekly reach of over 600,000, up more than 5% compared to Q1 2007.

Smooth FM London’s format change to target the “more mature adult listener” (see Smooth Transition For New Radio Transmission) does not appear to have so far been a huge success in London at breakfast, with the station’s weekly reach falling by almost 33.5% year on year, and 16.5% compared to Q1.

Capital Gold London also fared rather poorly, shedding almost 31% of its reach year on year and more than 23% period on period to see its reach fall to 190,000 for the breakfast slot.

Once again, BBC Radio 2’s Terry Wogan proved himself as a national treasure, keeping the station at the top spot in the morning with a weekly reach of more than 7.9 million.

Despite a year on year slide in reach of almost 2%, Britain still loves to wake up to the Limerick brogue of the Woge, with 0.5% more listeners tuning in quarter on quarter.

The self-proclaimed “saviour of Radio 1”, the ever-offensive Chris Moyles, added almost 3% to the station’s weekly reach Q1 to Q2, and almost 7% year on year, to push the station’s reach up to more than 7.2 million in the morning.

Almost 6.2 million listeners preferred a more cerebral wake up call, with Radio 4 as their station of choice. The station added more than 5% to its weekly reach year on year, but saw a drop of almost 3.5% compared to last quarter.

Meanwhile, Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogerty’s amusing banter kept almost 2.3 million entertained on BBC Radio FIVE LIVE. Despite a quarter on quarter slip of 1.2%, the pair managed to add 1.5% to the breakfast show’s weekly reach year on year for Q2.

TalkSPORT (Talk Radio) was up almost 8.5% year on year (with a period on period fall of less than 1%) to take its reach to just over one million, Total Virgin Radio, which now represents all analogue and digital listening in the UK after a change in reporting methodology, now sits at almost 1.2 million for breakfast.

Classic FM’s weekly reach now stands at more than 2.8 million for breakfast, despite a period on period fall of 3% and year on year slide of more than 2.5%, whilst the BBC’s classical music offering, BBC Radio 3 also recorded a decline in the morning.

The station now reaches less than 730,000 listeners in Britain after shedding 5% of its reach for the slot quarter on quarter and 3.3% year on year.

RAJAR: 020 7292 9040 www.rajar.co.uk