Classic FM Proves A Hit With The Golden Oldies
Classic FM has the oldest listeners of any commercial radio station in London or across the UK, according to the latest set of audience figures to come out of GfK’s National Broadcast Survey.
The ongoing national study of radio and television audiences shows that more than three quarters of Classic FM’s listeners are aged over 45, compared to 56% of talkSPORT’s audience and just 37% of those that regularly tune in to Virgin AM and FM.
The three London stations found to be more geared towards the lucrative grey market were Classic FM, with 69% of its listeners over the age of 45, Chrysalis-owned LBC News with almost 60% of the grey market and LBC 97.3 FM with just over half of its audience coming from the older demographics.
In contrast, the commercial stations with the most youthful audience profiles in London were found to be Emap’s dance-focussed Kiss 100, which has 75% of listeners aged between 16 and 44, Virgin with a 74% youth audience and Capital with 73% under the age of 44.
In terms of weekly reach, the youth-focussed stations continued to outperform those with a slightly older slant. Capital 95.8 maintained the top spot in London with just over 2.53 million weekly listeners, closely followed by Heart with 2.52 million and Magic with a weakly reach of 1.88 million.
Classic FM recorded a weekly reach of 1.43 million in the three months to March 2004, ahead of LBC 97.3 FM with 1.32 million and LBC News with 959,000. Xfm continued to gain ground in the capital with its weekly reach approaching the 600,000 mark.
BBC Radio 4 held on to the title of the UK’s most listened to radio station with a weekly reach of just under 16.5 million. BBC Radio 2 came in second with 15.2 million listeners, followed by BBC Radio 1 with 11.5 million. TalkSPORT was the most popular national commercial station with a weekly reach of almost 6 million.
Last month unofficial listening figures from GfK revealed that Radio One breakfast show host Chris Moyles helped to increase the station’s breakfast audience by 17% in the first quarter of this year. However, the success of the Moyles did little to help the overall performance of Radio One, which saw its weekly reach decline from 11.8 million to 11.4 million during the same period (see Breakfast Success For Moyles Fails To Boost Radio One).
GfK: 0870 603 8339 www.gfk.com
Recent Radio Stories from NewsLine Modest Revenue Improvements For Capital Radio Scottish Radio Sees Encouraging Growth In First Half French TV Listings Holding Back Emap Despite Profits Rising
Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive