More Audio Site articles

Raymond Snoddy on radio – a talkSPORT football match made in heaven; record audiences; and how to replace dead Radio 4 listeners…

UKRD’s chief executive William Rogers has called for Ed Vaizey to scrap the 2015 digital switchover target following “hugely disappointing” DAB listening figures in last week’s RAJAR release.

Commercial radio as a whole will be pleased with the year on year performance, despite the slip back in share vs the BBC this quarter. Within this set of figures though, there are some clear winners.

If I was an analogue radio operator, these figures would scare me. Digital-only stations’ numbers are going up and digital listening is a growing percentage of heritage stations’ audience – in London often 25% to 40%.

Digital has emerged as the star of today’s RAJAR results with almost 4 million more people tuning in via DAB than this time last year – a really promising step in the right direction for switch-over.

James Cridland, managing director of Media UK and a radio futurologist, says the latest digital listening figures are a welcome, gradual, improvement: but anyone expecting the internet or DAB to replace FM listening any time soon might have egg on their face…

RAJAR figures for Q4 2010 saw stand-out performances from a number of commercial radio stations, including talkSPORT and Kiss 100 FM.

BBC Radio 2 still has the highest number of national listeners following a rise this quarter (after two periods of suffering a drop in reach).

Digital radio put in a strong performance once again this quarter, posting substantial increases in weekly reach, listening hours and DAB set ownership.

Magic 105.4 held on to the top spot in London following a positive YoY increase in weekly reach (although it did see its reach fall 4.6% QoQ).