RAJAR Q1 2010: Breakfast

This analysis is comparing the weekly reach of the breakfast shows of the London stations and not the time slots. Heart 106.2 FM’s breakfast show currently runs from 6am-9am, while 95.8 Capital Radio’s runs from 6am-10am and Magic 105.4’s runs from 5.30am-9am.

Johnny Vaughan’s 95.8 Capital Radio breakfast show remains well out in front of its rival London stations once again in terms of weekly reach, despite posting a 5.6% period on period decline in Q1 2010.

However, the Global Radio breakfast show, hosted by Vaughan and his partner Lisa Snowdon, did manage to record a 9% year on year increase, which takes its total to more than 1.1 million listeners.

Its closest competitor is also owned by Global – Heart 106.2 FM, which enjoyed a small 1% period on period increase to 798, 000 listeners.  Bauer’s Magic comes a close third with 785,000 listeners after a slight 0.4% period on period rise.

Despite remaining in fourth place, Bauer’s Kiss 100 FM witnessed a 1.8% period on period drop and a more significant 15.5% fall to 656,000 listeners.  As a result, LBC 97.3 has been able to keep its momentum going in fifth place following a 5.3% period on period increase (and a significant 33.3% year on year rise) to 597,000 listeners.

Meanwhile, Total Absolute Radio (London), Choice FM London and Buzz Asia all suffered fairly hefty period on period decreases.    Choice FM was down by 15.2% during the quarter to 252,000 listeners, while Total Absolute Radio (London) lost 19.2% of its reach (24.4% year on year), taking it down to 350,000 listeners.

Buzz Asia 963+972AM fell by an even higher 21.4% period on period (and 34.5% year on year), which takes its total weekly reach to 55,000 listeners.

However, some stations in our report managed to boast decent period on period increases.  BBC London 94.9 went up by an impressive 41.7% during the quarter to 231,000 listeners, while LBC News increased its reach by 27.5% to 167,000 listeners.

Smooth Radio (London), Gold London and XFM 104.9 also enjoyed a positive quarter.

Nationally, BBC Radio 2 – which has added an extra 30 minutes to its all-new breakfast show with Chris Evans (now starting at 7am) – increased its lead by a significant 1.1 million listeners, following a 13.1% period on period rise (17.6% year on year).  The top breakfast show, which has been presented by Evans since January this year after the departure of Radio 2’s long-standing DJ Terry Wogan, now has a weekly reach of more than 9.5 million listeners.

Chris Moyles and his team on BBC Radio 1 also had a positive quarter, up by 8.9% period on period to more than 7.8 million listeners.

BBC Radio 4, meanwhile, posted a slight increase of 0.3% period on period but was down 3.8% year on year, which takes its total reach to around 6.4 million listeners.

Classic FM, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio FIVE LIVE all recorded both period on period and year on year increases during Q1 2010.

talkSPORT and Total Absolute Radio were the only two stations in our analysis to report declines.  Total Absolute Radio suffered a 4.1% dip during the period (6.3% year on year), taking it down to 810,000 listeners, while talkSPORT was down by an even higher 17.8% over the three-month period (and by 3.3% year on year) to 968,000 listeners.

MediaTel has PowerPoint presentations available to download, featuring pre-prepared market breakdown graphs for the latest RAJAR data release – click here.