Magic Still Has The Most Listeners In London

Magic 105.4 remains above all the other London stations in terms of weekly reach and share of listening, despite suffering both year on year and period on period declines, according to RAJAR figures of Q3 2008.

Its average weekly reach in London has slipped to below 2 million listeners, after a year on year downturn of around 7%.

Magic now has a 5.8% share of listening, followed closely by Heart 106.2 FM with a 5.7% share.

Heart’s share of listening remained static period on period but the station reported an increase of around 0.4% in its weekly reach figures, up to almost 1.8 million listeners.

Heart 106.2 also remained static at 6.5 average hours per listener, while 95.8 Capital Radio experienced a massive increase in its average hours per listener, up more than 20% period on period to 7 hours in total, topping all the other stations in our featured list.

95.8 Capital Radio has also seen year on year and period on period growth in its share of listening, up 0.7% points and 0.8% points respectively, leaving it with a total 5.4% share.

However, the London station experienced a decline of almost 7% year on year in its weekly reach, to below 1.6 million listeners.

Meanwhile, Kiss 100 FM enjoyed a good Q3 overall, up 8.3% period on period in its weekly reach figures to over 1.5 million listeners in total.

Kiss 100 also posted a significant 12.3% year on year increase in its average hours per listener to 6.4 hours, while its share of listening was also up 0.5% points year on year to 4.8% in total.

Bauer has invested £1.5 million in to Kiss in recent months, which has enabled the station to launch a radio stream via the iPhone and run an exclusive summer promotion deal with Coca-Cola (see Kiss 100 And Coca-Cola Sign Exclusive Summer Promotion Deal).

Total Virgin (London) saw a year on year and period on period rise of 3.2% in its average hours per listener, which now stands at around 6.5 hours in total.

Its share of listening also increased year on year and period on period by around 0.1% points, taking its total share to 3.3%.

However, Total Virgin (London) posted a year on year decline of 10.4% in its weekly reach, to just over 1 million listeners.

Virgin Radio London saw a period on period downturn of 5.1% in its weekly reach to around 950,000 listeners, while its share of listening and average hours per listener both remained static during this period.

Virgin Radio was re-branded as Absolute Radio at the beginning of September, following its sale to a consortium including The Times of India Group for £53 million in June this year (see Virgin Radio To Become Absolute).

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