Capital Radio Scoops Breakfast Top Spot In London

This report on Breakfast radio listening has been slightly amended to incorporate the re-release of data from RAJAR for Q4 2007, following weighting irregularities from RAJAR’s contractor RSMB on six monthly reporting stations. Any changes are clearly highlighted in the text and tables (where appropriate).

95.8 Capital Radio reached the top spot with its breakfast show in London in Q4 2007, with the latest RAJAR figures seeing the station reporting a year on year rise in reach of over 4%.

The station’s weekly reach now stands at 937,000, which was however down from over one million in Q3 2007, but still enough to outperform its rivals.

This quarter saw a change in reporting for the station, which added an extra half-hour to its breakfast slot, from 6.30am to 10am.

Johnny Vaughan will be hoping to boost his listeners even further when old partner Denise Van Outen joins him on The Capital Breakfast Show from next week (see Johnny And Denise Together Again).

Jamie Theakston on Heart 106.2 FM came in second place in the capital, after pushing the station’s breakfast reach up 13% quarter on quarter. For Q4 2007, Heart’s reach in the morning for London now stands at 915,000, which was in fact down 3.5% year on year.

Some trade press sources are reporting that Heart 106.2 has taken the top spot at breakfast in the capital. However, this is when looking at the traditional 6am to 9am timeslot, whereas Capital’s breakfast show runs for longer.

Magic 105.4 has taken third place according to the latest RAJAR’s, with Dr Fox’s listener base now resting at around 810,000. This was despite a year on year slide in weekly reach of over 10.5% and a period on period fall of almost 8.5%.

Following a period on period downturn of less than 4% and a year on year rise of under 4%, Kiss 100 FM has recorded a reach of 675,000 at breakfast time in London.

Despite a rebrand and a selection of new presenters (see New Gold Network Releases Schedule), Gold London (previously Capital Gold) saw around a 62% slide in its weekly reach at breakfast year on year, and a 46% slump period on period. Gold London reports a weekly reach of under 115,000 for the last quarter of 2007.

Xfm 104.9, which sees ex-Popworld presenter Alex Zane at the breakfast helm (see Alex Zane New Xfm London Breakfast DJ), also saw its weekly reach shrink. The music station’s reach was down over 5% year on year and over 4% from last quarter, taking it to over 250,000.

Total Virgin (London) on the other hand, increased its reach to more than 565,000 (changed from almost 605,000 in RAJAR re-release 15/2/08).

News and speech station LBC 97.3 now reports a reach of 444,000, after a buoyant quarter that saw its reach bolstered by more than a quarter year on year, and almost 13% period on period.

BBC London 94.9, however, was down by more than a quarter year on year to under 180,000, whilst LBC News 1152 also fell, by over 22% year on year to under 110,000.

Terry Wogan remained the undisputed king of breakfast radio in the UK with a weekly reach of over 7.7 million for Q4 2007. The programme’s reach was up less than 1% period on period but down over 3% year on year.

Over on BBC Radio 1, Chris Moyles continued to thrive for the station at breakfast with a reach of around 7.3 million. The station now reports its breakfast hours from 6.30am to 10am, and reports a year on year upturn of just under 5% and a quarter on quarter rise of just under 3%.

BBC Radio 4’s breakfast slot takes third place in Q4 2007, with a weekly reach of around 6.2 million. This indicates an increase of 5% on Q3 2007, but is static year on year.

Classic FM’s reach for breakfast in Britain now sits just under the three million mark, following a year on year rise of almost 6% but a period on period downturn of over 2%.

Fellow classical station, BBC Radio 3, saw its share climb 13.5% from Q3 2007, with an almost 3% year on year fall taking its reach to just under 810,000 between 7am and 10am.

Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogerty’s mix of sport and current affairs attracted over 2.3 million listeners to BBC Radio Five Live in Q4 2007, indicating a slight year on year upturn and a period on period rise of 2%.

talkSPORT also experienced a prosperous quarter, bolstering its reach to around 1.1 million. This was following a year on year growth of almost 5% and a period on period rise of 0.5%.

Total Virgin Radio’s reach now stands at more than 1.1 million (changed from almost 1.2 million in RAJAR re-release 15/2/08).

New RAJAR specification introduced in Q2 2007. Please use caution.

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