RAJAR Q1 09: National Stations

Although BBC Radio 2 once again had the largest weekly reach figure of any national station, it was down 1.3% year on year to around 13.5 million listeners.

BBC Radio 1 remained unchanged year on year, at 11 million listeners, according to the latest RAJAR figures, for Q1 2009.

Commercial chat and sport station talkSPORT suffered a slight year on year drop in weekly reach, dipping 2.2% to 2.4 million listeners.

Heart Network (UK) was up a massive 113.5% year on year, although this was boosted by the Global Radio takeover of GCap (see Global Radio To Acquire GCap For £375m) which saw many of GCap’s former One Network local stations join the Heart Network.

Period on period, Heart Network’s increase was up 4.6%, taking its total to an impressive 7.2 million listeners.

As with Heart Network, Galaxy Network (UK) also saw a large increase in reach following the GCap takeover. It was up 38.8% year on year, to 3.6 million listeners. Its period on period figure was relatively static, however.

There was a healthy rise in reach for Total Kiss Network, up 11.3% year on year, to 3.3 million listeners, while Total Magic was up by 10.3% to 3.5 million.

Also enjoying a year on year rise in the first quarter was Total Smooth Radio, which now has a weekly reach of 2.8 million following an increase of 18%, although it dipped by nearly 3% quarter on quarter.

Total Absolute Radio has changed its reporting from half yearly to quarterly. Looking at quarterly figures for Q4 2008 its reach has rallied from 1.5 million to nearly 1.7 million listeners in Q1 2009, which is a 13.7% increase.

In Q1 2008 Virgin released a half yearly figure of 2.4 million listeners, meaning that although it is down year on year, Absolute’s new positioning is beginning to regain listeners.

Total Absolute Radio launched on 29 September 2008 after The Times of India group bought out Virgin Radio (see Absolute Radio Targets 3m Listeners).

Elsewhere, digital only station Jazz FM recorded a very health weekly reach of 408,000 in its first RAJAR reporting period.

BBC Radio 2 remains the national station with the greatest share, at 15.9%, despite a 0.6 percentage point drop in Q1.

Radio 1’s share stayed above the 10% mark, with a slight increase on last period.

Amongst the national networks, Heart Network (UK) now has a 5.7% share of listening. It was up 3.4 percentage points year on year following last year’s takeover of GCap by Global Radio.

National BBC stations Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4, each suffered year on year dips in average hours per listener, at around 3%.

Radio 1 and Radio 4 each stayed static period on period, with average hours per listener figures 9.6 hours and 12.1 hours respectively.

Radio 2 was up period on period by 1.7% to just over 12 hours per listener.

Total Absolute Radio’s average hours per listener figure continues to rise following its takeover of Virgin Radio.

It is up 20.3% year on year and 7.6% period on period to 7.1 hours.

Heart Network (UK) and Galaxy Network (UK) were both up year on year, by 14.3% and 11.3% respectively. Heart Network now has a total average hours per listener figure of 11.3 hours – although it fell slightly period on period – while Galaxy Network’s stands at 14.3 hours.

Digital station Chill also saw an impressive year on year rise in average hours per listener, up 19% to 5 hours, while Q listeners are now sticking with the station for an average of 3.5 hours after a year on year increase of 16.7%.

Total LBC (UK) listeners are staying tuned to the station for 11.6 hours on average, up 1.8%.

This figure has fallen 6.5% year on year, however.