RAJAR Q2 09: National Stations

BBC Radio 2 remained the national station with the highest reach in Q2 2009, up 3.3% year on year to just under 13.5 million listeners.

With 11.3 million listeners, Radio 1 enjoyed a year on year increase of around 6% according to the latest RAJAR figures.

In a successful quarter for the BBC’s national stations, Radio 4 was also up year on year, with a 5% increase in listeners taking it to around 10 million.

BBC Asian Network UK suffered an 11% year on year fall in reach, although it was up 4% period on period to give it a total of 421,000 listeners. The station has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks after an Evening Standard article suggested it could be axed after shedding listeners despite heavy investment.

Looking at commercial radio, chat and sport station talkSPORT’s weekly reach was up by around 1% year on year to 2.4 million.

The smooth sounds of Classic FM continued to pull in listeners, with 4.5% year on year growth giving it a weekly reach of 5.7 million. It was also up by around 5.5% period on period.

Total Absolute Radio, which changed its reporting from half-yearly to quarterly in Q1 2009, remained relatively static period on period at just under 1.7 million listeners.

Absolute Radio launched on 29 September 2008 after The Times of India group bought out Virgin Radio (see Absolute Radio Targets 3m Listeners).

Smash Hits Radio moved back above the one million listener mark in Q2 following a period on period increase of 16%. It was also up year on year by around 18.5%.

Galaxy Network (UK) enjoyed a year on year rise in weekly reach of almost 40%, although some of this was due to last year’s takeover of GCap by Global Radio. Period on period it was up 1.7%. Its current weekly reach stands at 3.7 million according to the latest RAJAR data.

Heart Network (UK) also enjoyed a big increase in reach following the GCap takeover (see Global Radio To Acquire GCap For £375m). Its reach has rocketed 119% over the past year to 7.5 million in Q2. Period on period it was up 3%.

There was also a big jump in listeners for Total Real Radio, up around 53% year on year to 2.4 million. This follows the rebranding of Century Radio in the north-east and west as Real Radio North East and Real Radio North West at the end of March this year (see GMG rebrands Century Radio).

In what was a generally positive period for national stations, Gold Network enjoyed a year on year rise of around 18%, taking its reach to 1.1 million listeners.

BBC Radio 2’s share of listening slipped 0.5 percentage points year on year in Q2, although it remains ahead of the pack at 15.5%.

Within the commercial stations, Heart Network (UK) leads the way with a 5.9% share of listening. It was up 3.6 percentage points year on year following last year’s takeover of GCap by Global Radio.

Total Real Radio’s share of listening was up 0.6 percentage points on the same period last year, to 2.1%.

BBC Radio 4 saw its average hours per listener figure fall 3.1% both period on period and year on year, to 12.4 hours, while Radio 2, was also down, by around 5% year on year to 11.9 hours.

Alternative music station BBC 6 Music was bouyed by a year on year increase of almost 8%, taking its total average hours per listener to around 7.

Classic FM dipped 2.8% year on year, although it was static period on period at 7 hours. Also static period on period was talkSPORT, although it too was down on last year, by 6.3%. Listeners are now sticking with the station for 7.5 hours on average./p>

After Planet Rock’s drop in hours last quarter to just six hours, it has now returned to over 7 hours, enjoying an 18% period on period increase.

The reverse was true, however, for Q, which couldn’t maintain the gains in hours seen last release, dropping 31% period on period to 2.4 hours. However, this figure is still 9% above last year’s level.

Total Kerrang! suffered a 15.2% year on year decline, to 3.9 hours.

Total LBC (UK) listeners are staying tuned to the station for 12 hours on average, up 7.1% on the same period last year. This is the highest average hours figure of any national commercial station.