London Radio Listening Guide

The Rajar data released for the period January to March’93 has revealed more favourable weekly reaches for all the London ILR stations than the first survey, which covered the period October to December ’92. The most notable improvement was for Capital FM with an increase in weekly reach of 3 percentage points to 32%. Capital Gold, Jazz, Kiss, Melody and LBC Newstalk all increased their weekly reach by 1 percentage point.
In terms of market share Capital FM continues to dominate with a 17.1% share of total listening in the London TSA. BBC Radio 1’s share in London fell by almost 2 percentage points to 10.6% and its total hours dropped by 3.9m. The survey revealed more favourable results for Radio 5, the station’s total hours almost doubled to 4.3m and its weekly reach rose from 7% to 9%.
Classic FM’s reach in London increased from 9% to 11%, 1 percentage point above its national reach.
Despite showing an increase in weekly reach many ILR stations experienced a reduction in the total hours listened. LBC Talkback suffered the largest fall, losing 1.4m hours on the first Rajar survey.
LISTENING IN THE LONDON TSA
Wk Rch(%) | Wk Rch(%) | Shr/Lstng(%) | Shr/Lstng(%) | Total Hours’000s | Total Hours’000s | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
’92 | ’93 | ’92 | ’93 | ’92 | ’93 | |
Cptl | 38 | 40 | 26.3 | 26.4 | 51583 | 51247 |
” FM | 29 | 32 | 16.9 | 17.1 | 33189 | 33089 |
” AM | 18 | 19 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 18394 | 18158 |
Jazz | 6 | 7 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 2791 | 2783 |
Kiss | 8 | 9 | 2.8 | 2.3 | 5418 | 4532 |
LBC | 15 | 15 | 9.1 | 8.3 | 17955 | 16108 |
” FM | 8 | 9 | 3.2 | 3 | 6211 | 5809 |
” AM | 10 | 10 | 6 | 5.3 | 11744 | 10299 |
Melody | 9 | 10 | 4 | 4.7 | 7845 | 9153 |
Spectrum | 3 | 3 | 1.1 | 1 | 1724 | 1648 |
BBC Lc | 11 | 11 | 3.7 | 3.1 | 7276 | 6088 |
BBC 1 | 25 | 25 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 24463 | 20565 |
BBC 2 | 21 | 20 | 11.6 | 12.5 | 22775 | 24232 |
BBC 3 | 7 | 7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 3312 | 3225 |
BBC 4 | 23 | 24 | 13.3 | 13.6 | 26015 | 26444 |
BBC 5 | 7 | 9 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 2295 | 4276 |
Classic | 9 | 11 | 3 | 3.1 | 5893 | 5914 |
Commercial radio listening in London has a younger profile than all radio listening in London, 41% of commercial listening comes from the 15-34 age group, compared to 35% for all stations in London. Of the ILR stations Kiss has the youngest audience with 60% of its total hours listened coming from the 15-24 age group. The dance station’s listening is also skewed towards men. Melody and LBC Talkback have the oldest audiences with 75% of Melody’s listening and 63% of Talkback’s listening coming from the over 55s.
PROFILES – BASED ON TOTAL HOURS LISTENED
Men 15+ | Wmn 15+ | ABC1 | C2DE | 15-24 | 25-34 | 35-44 | 45-54 | 55+ | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lndn A | 50 | 50 | 48 | 52 | 15 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 33 |
Lndn C | 50 | 50 | 41 | 59 | 19 | 22 | 18 | 15 | 26 |
Cptl FM | 49 | 51 | 42 | 58 | 31 | 35 | 21 | 8 | 5 |
Cptl AM | 56 | 44 | 29 | 71 | 10 | 18 | 19 | 28 | 25 |
Jazz | 70 | 30 | 56 | 44 | 14 | 41 | 18 | 12 | 16 |
Kiss | 61 | 39 | 42 | 58 | 60 | 23 | 13 | 2 | 2 |
LBC FM | 58 | 42 | 67 | 33 | 9 | 77 | 13 | 19 | 48 |
LBC AM | 31 | 69 | 41 | 59 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 63 |
Melody | 51 | 49 | 34 | 66 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 75 |
Spctrum | 35 | 65 | 33 | 67 | 6 | 16 | 38 | 18 | 22 |
Source: Rajar Jan-Mar’93
Lndn A = All Stations in London
Lndn C = Commercial Stations
The London Radio market is approaching a turbulent period with the re- advertisement of all the existing ILR licences, the advertisement of 2 new AM licences and the undoubted effect that Virgin Radio will have. Of all the stations broadcasting in London Capital FM, Capital Gold and Radio 1 are likely to be most effected by the arrival of Virgin, whose target audience is the 25-44 age group.