BBC Radio 2 remains top national station

BBC Radio 2 continues to have the highest weekly reach of all the national stations at 13.5 million listeners, according to the RAJAR figures for Q4 2008, following a year on year rise of 5%.

BBC Radio 1 was not far behind, with 10.5 million listeners, although it was down both year on year and period on period, by around 1% and 2.5% respectively.

Sticking with the BBC, Radio 4’s reach enjoyed a boost of around 5.5% year on year, taking its reach to 9.8 million listeners.

Heart Network (UK) now has a total weekly reach of 6.9 million listeners after a period on period increase of 1.3%. It was up a massive 107.3% year on year, although this was boosted by the Global Radio takeover of GCap last year (see Global Radio To Acquire GCap For £375m) which saw many of GCap’s former One Network local stations join the Heart Network.

Global Radio’s Galaxy Network (UK) remained relatively static period on period, although it too was up year on year, by 43.7%, after absorbing regional stations such as XFM Scotland and Power FM.

Classic FM was up both year on year and period on period, by 2% and around 3% respectively, giving it a weekly reach of 5.7 million listeners.

Total Absolute Radio, which launched on September 29 after The Times of India group bought out Virgin Radio (see Absolute Radio Targets 3m Listeners), recorded a weekly reach of 1.9 million listeners, down from the 2.4 million listeners Virgin had in Q4 2007.

Total Kiss Network and Total Magic were both up year on year, by around 8% and 4% respectively.

Total Kiss Network now has a reach of 3.2 million listeners, while Total Magic’s is around 3.5 million.

Total Smooth Radio’s listener numbers jumped 29.5% year on year, although the period on period rise was a rather more modest 4%. It now has a weekly reach of 2.8 million.

The hard rocking Total Kerrang has a reach of almost 1.4 million listeners following year on year growth of almost 5%.

Total XFM, meanwhile, shed over 22.5% of its listeners year on year. It remained relatively static period on period though, at 863,000.

There was a year on year rise of almost 21% for digital only station Planet Rock, which was due to close before being bought by entrepreneur Malcolm Bluemel last June. It now reaches 680,000 listeners per week.

Moving on to share of listening, BBC Radio 2 was up 0.1 percentage points year on year to 15.8%, followed by BBC Radio 4 with a 12.4% share, having enjoyed a 0.6 percentage points increase.

Classic FM was down 0.2 percentage points on Q4 2007, giving it a 4% share of listening, although it was up 0.2 percentage points period on period.

talkSPORT’s share of listening also fell 0.2 percentage points over the 12 months, to 1.8%.

Also suffering a slight dip in Q4 was Total Absolute Radio, down by 0.3 percentage points year on year, leaving its share of listening at 1.2%.

Galaxy Network (UK) and Heart Network (UK) both boosted their share of listening by 0.1 percentage point period on period.

Galaxy Network (UK) now has a 2.6% share of listening, while Heart Network (UK) has a 5.5% share. Year on year increases for the pair were 1.0 percentage point and 3.1 percentage points following last year’s takeover of GCap by Global.

BBC Radio 2 suffered a relatively large decline in average hours per listener, of around 5% year on year, leaving its total at 11.9 hours, while BBC Radio 4 was also down year on year, by almost 1%, to leave its total at 12.8 hours.

There were impressive year on year increases in average hours for Mojo Radio and Planet Rock, up 48.5% and around 28.5% respectively.

Mojo Radio listeners now stay tuned for an average of around five hours per week, while Planet Rock’s listeners stick with it for over seven.

Also up on Q4 2007 was Total Absolute Radio, which saw its average hours per listener grow by around 8% to 6.6 hours. It was also up 6.5% period on period.

Up year on year (3%) and period on period (4.4%) was Total Magic, hitting 7.1 hours per listener.

Total Smooth Radio fell 10.8% year on year and around 5.5% period on period, leaving its average hours figure at 8.3.

Total Real Radio fell from 11.5 hours per listener in Q4 2007 to 9.5 hours in Q4 2008, a drop of over 17% but it had a healthy period on period rise of around 5.5%.

Similarly, Total XFM (UK) was down year on year, by around 11%, but up period on period, by 6.7% to just under five hours.

talkSPORT did not have a great period, falling 13.3% year on year and 11.1% on Q3, leaving its average hours figure at 7.2.

Classic FM has a similar average hours per listener figure, at 7.1 hours, after a year on year fall of 6.6%. It was up period on period, however, by 3%.

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