RAJAR Q1 09: Breakfast

This analysis is comparing the weekly reach of the breakfast shows of the London stations and not the time slots. Heart 106.2 FM’s and Magic 105.4’s breakfast shows currently run from 6am-9am, while 95.8 Capital Radio’s runs from 6am-10am.

Johnny Vaughan’s 95.8 Capital Radio breakfast show remains on top in the Capital with a weekly reach of more than 1 million listeners, after an impressive year on year increase of 13%, according to RAJAR’s Q1 2009 release.

95.8 Capital Radio added an extra half an hour to its breakfast show running time in Q1 2008, following on from a half and hour increase in Q4 2007. The show now runs for four hours.

The station’s breakfast show sits well ahead of its rival London breakfast shows now it has surpassed the 1 million listener mark.

Its nearest competitor is Heart 106.2 FM’s show, which has a weekly reach of around 833,000 after a year on year drop of 6.7%. Magic 105.4, meanwhile, remains in third place with 784,000 listeners, but also witnessed a year on year decline of 5.7%.

However, Kiss 100’s ‘The Rickie & Melvin breakfast show’ had a good period and is closing the gap on Magic. The station boasts an impressive 18.3% year on year rise, taking its total reach up to 776,000 listeners.

Gold London and LBC News 1152 also enjoyed significant year on year upturns in Q1 – Gold’s breakfast show was up by 46.9% year on year to 141,000 listeners, while LBC increased its reach by 34.7% year on year to 132,000 listeners.

However, all the other stations in the London breakfast show category experienced year on year declines in Q1, with the exception of Xfm, which increased its reach by 1.0% year on year but suffered a significant 19.9% period on period decline to just over 200,000 listeners.

Total Absolute London also had a mixed release – dropping a significant 23.6% year on year but it did increase its reach period on period by 4.8%, leaving it with 463,000 listeners in total.

Meanwhile, Smooth Radio (London) and BBC London 94.9 both suffered large year on year and period on period declines.

Smooth Radio’s reach was down by 17.5% year on year and a considerable 42% period on period, taking it down to just 170,000 listeners, while BBC London’s reach fell by 15.1% year on year and 15.8% period on period to around 208,000 listeners.

Nationally, BBC Radio 2 was once again top at breakfast, with Terry Wogan securing a weekly reach of over 7.7 million listeners, despite a year on year decline of over 4%.

Although Wogan still has the top spot under his belt, Chris Moyles and his team on BBC Radio 1 are quickly closing the gap and also have more than 7.7 million listeners now, following a period on period increase of 5.6%.

BBC Radio 4 sits in third place with a weekly reach of more than 6.6 million, after a 4.2% year on year rise. The station’s breakfast show was the only national breakfast show in our analysis to post a year on year increase.

Total Absolute Radio was down by a significant 32% year on year but once again, managed to gain ground during the period and enjoyed a 10% period on period upturn to 815,000 listeners.

Meanwhile, talkSPORT experienced a 13% year on year decline (6.7% period on period) but still managed to remain above the 1 million-listener mark.