Magic 105.4 stays on top in London

Magic 105.4 remains above all the other London stations for the third consecutive quarter, in terms of weekly reach and share of listening, according to RAJAR figures for Q4 2008.

Its average weekly reach in London is back up to almost 2 million listeners, after a period on period increase of around 6%.

Magic was also the only station in Q4 to report period on period growth in share of listening of 0.2 percentage points, taking its total share up to 6%.

In December, Bauer Media appointed Pete Simmons as programme director at Magic 105.4 (see Magic 105.4 Appoints New Programme Director).

Commenting on the latest RAJAR results, Simmons told NewsLine that the key to Magic’s success is its consistency. “The good thing about Magic is that we’ve had eight straight quarters of success. Consistency helps us a lot.”

He added that it was a mistake for people to think that Magic is in a battle with Capital and Heart, as most of its listeners do not tune into these stations.

Magic’s average hours per listener remained static in the quarter, alongside Absolute Radio London’s period on period figures.

Absolute Radio, which launched on September 29 after The Times of India group bought out Virgin Radio (see Absolute Radio Targets 3m Listeners), experienced a significant decline in weekly reach but managed to increase its average hours per listener in its first full quarter release.

Absolute Radio London saw its weekly reach drop by almost 23% year on year (nearly 13% period on period), while Total Absolute Radio experienced a downturn of 22.4% year on year (over 11% period on period).

Absolute Radio London and Total Absolute Radio’s weekly reach now stands at nearly 840,000 and almost 900,000 listeners respectively, according to Q4 RAJAR figures.

The Absolute stations also suffered year on year and period on period dips in their share of listening.

However, Absolute managed to retain its listeners for longer – Absolute Radio London remained static period on period but was up by 3.5% year on year, to almost 6 average hours per listener per week.

Meanwhile, Total Absolute Radio experienced a year on year increase of almost 8% (up 4.6% period on period), taking its average hours per listener to 6.8.

The Absolute stations were the only stations to follow this pattern – most others enjoyed a good overall Q4 in terms of weekly reach, but saw dips in their average hours per listener.

Kiss 100 FM saw year on year growth of 10.5%, taking its total weekly reach close to 1.6 million listeners – while its share of listening remained static at 4.2%.

However, it witnessed a year on year decline of over 11% in its average hours per listener, reducing its hours from 6.3 to just 5.6.

95.8 Capital Radio followed a similar pattern – while it enjoyed year on year growth of more than 7%, taking its total weekly reach to over 1.6 million listeners, its average hours per listener slipped down by just over 6% year on year, leaving it with 6.2 hours in total.

Heart 106.2 FM, meanwhile, suffered year on year declines in all three areas – weekly reach, share of listening and average hours per listener.

The station’s average hours per listener declined by more than 20% year on year (10.8% period on period), down to 5.8 hours.

Heart’s share of listening also dipped by 1.2 percentage points year on year, leaving it with 5% in total.

Despite Heart’s reach falling over 2.5% year on year, it did achieve a slight increase of 0.7% period on period, to almost 1.8 million listeners – making it the closest station to the top-running Magic in terms of weekly reach.

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