BBC Radio 2 Remains Nation’s Number One At Breakfast

BBC Radio 2 once again proved itself as the UK’s favourite breakfast time companion, as the latest RAJAR results for Q2 2006 show the station taking the top spot with a national audience of more than eight million listeners a week, up 3.98% from Q1.

BBC stations scooped the top three spots in the national breakfast battle, with chart-based pop station, BBC Radio One, coming in at second place with nearly 6.8 million listeners, up an impressive 7.5% from Q1, earning Chris Moyles his highest ever breakfast audience figure.

BBC Radio 4 took third place, despite its listener numbers being down on the previous quarter by more than 4%, leaving it with nearly 5.9 million listeners in the morning.

Classical music station, BBC Radio 3, was less fortunate, shedding 10.37% of its audience from Q1 to Q2. The station is now tuned in to by just over 750,000 people. Total Virgin Radio (AM/FM) also suffered a dip in its listeners in the morning slot, falling 8.75% from Q1, to leave it with a weekly reach of 1.1 million.

TalkSPORT also lost morning listeners, seeing a dip of 2.97% to leave the station with a total weekly audience of just over 940,000. BBC Radio Five Live also attracted less listeners than it did in Q1, shedding 2.7% of its audience to leave the station with a total weekly reach of 2.25 million people.

GCap Media’s Classic FM station remained fairly static from last quarter, rising slightly to leave it with 2.9 million listeners a week. However, the station has lost nearly 9% of its weekly reach year on year, but recently announced the biggest change in its schedule in the station’s history (see Classic FM Announces Biggest Change To Schedule Yet).

Competition in the lucrative London market is really hotting up, with around 50,000 listeners seperating the top three stations.

Johnny Vaughan proved to be London’s favourite wake-up call, with latest Q2 2006 RAJAR figures showing Capital Radio to be the city’s most listened to station in the morning, despite an 11.5% drop in its audience from Q1 giving it its lowest ever breakfast audience.

Capital Radio now has a weekly reach of just over 850,000 listeners in the morning, down from more than 960,000 in Q1 and down more than 20% year on year.

Heart 106.2 FM took second place with 820,000 listeners a week, down 4% from Q1. Magic 105.4 FM came in at the third position with a weekly audience of 803,000, down slightly from the last quarter but up more than 14% year on year.

LBC News 1152 suffered the largest percentage loss of listeners, shedding just under 35% of its weekly audience from Q1. The station manages to get just over 100,000 listeners a week, having lost more than 50% of its weekly reach year on year. LBC 97.3’s weekly breakfast reach was also down, by almost 13% from last quarter, to leave it with over 350,000 listeners tuning in on a weekly basis.

Kiss 100 FM pushed its breakfast reach up more than 7% on last quarter and up more than 5% year on year, with 705,000 listeners tuning in each week. However, Choice FM suffered a more than 25% drop in its weekly reach from Q1, leaving it with an audience base of just over 240,000 a week.

Smooth FM London managed to boost its weekly audience significantly, by more than 40%, leaving the station with a reach of over 300,000 listeners a week.

Weekly reach for Total Virgin London (AM/FM) fell 6.75% from Q1, leaving the station with a weekly breakfast reach of 580,000 people. Xfm, which has now expanded beyond the capital (see Xfm Rejigs Schedule Ahead Of Manchester Launch), also lost listeners. Host Lauren Laverne, who took over the breakfast show after Christian O’Connell left to join Virgin Radio last year, saw her listeners dip by 3.8%, leaving the station with a weekly reach of 327,000.

Capital Gold London and BBC London 94.9 saw their reach increase by 3% and 3.5% from Q1 respectively. BBC London now attracts 204,000 listeners to the station each week, a boost of more than 40% year on year, while Capital Gold manages to pull in an audience of 275,000, down more than 20% year on year.

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