Radio 1 Continues To Lead National Radio
BBC Radio 1 continues to be the nation’s most popular national radio station with an average weekly audience of 11.3 million, according to RAJAR figures for the three months to March 2000 released this morning. This represents a 4.3% increase in audience for Radio 1, which also saw its share of listening rise slightly by 0.1% points to 9.9%. Radio 2 also performed strongly for the Corporation in the first quarter of this year with audiences up 9.5% to 10.6 million and share of listening coming in at 13.3% – the greatest of all the national stations.
| National Stations Weekly Reach (000s) | |||
| Station | Mar-99 | Mar-00 | % Change |
| BBC Radio 1 | 10,846 | 11,316 | 4.3 |
| BBC Radio 2 | 9,678 | 10,593 | 9.5 |
| BBC Radio 3 | 2,277 | 2,143 | -5.9 |
| BBC Radio 4 | 9,475 | 9,057 | -4.4 |
| BBC Radio 5 | 5,830 | 6,185 | 6.1 |
| Classic FM | 6,038 | 6,259 | 3.7 |
| talkSPORT (was Talk Radio) | 2,321 | 2,378 | 2.5 |
| The New Atlantic 252 | 2,285 | 1,670 | -26.9 |
| Virgin Radio AM (UK) | 3,524 | 3,311 | -6.0 |
National commercial station Classic FM also had a strong quarter with weekly reach rising by 3.7% to 6.3 million and share of listening up slightly to 4.4%. However, the other three commercial stations – TalkSport, The New Atlantic 252 and Virgin Radio AM, each saw its share of listening fall back in this report. Atlantic 252 particularly is suffering declining audiences with reach down by 26.9% to 1.7 million and share slipping for 1.0% to just 0.7% year on year. This is despite a relaunch in March 1999 (see Atlantic 252 Launches New Identity).
| National Stations Share Of Listening (%) | |||
| Station | Mar-99 | Mar-00 | % Point Change |
| BBC Radio 1 | 9.8 | 9.9 | 0.1 |
| BBC Radio 2 | 12.8 | 13.3 | 0.5 |
| BBC Radio 3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.0 |
| BBC Radio 4 | 11.4 | 10.9 | -0.5 |
| BBC Radio 5 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 0.2 |
| Classic FM | 4.3 | 4.4 | 0.1 |
| talkSPORT (was Talk Radio) | 1.8 | 1.4 | -0.4 |
| The New Atlantic 252 | 1.0 | 0.7 | -0.3 |
| Virgin Radio AM (UK) | 2.4 | 2.0 | -0.4 |
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