Rajar Q2 1997- Summary

Quarter 2 1997 Rajar figures were released today with the results showing that commercial radio is up by 0.8% point on Q1 having a share of 50.2%

For the first time ever achieving over 40% was commercial radio with a figure of 40.2%. The share of listeners aged 15-24 has risen from 60.9% to 66.5% over the past year showing a growth in appeal to the listeners that the advertisers want the most. Many stations have made some excellent gains including Belfast City Beat, Classic FM , Downtown Radio, Forth, GWR FM, Heart FM, Kiss 100 FM , Melody 105.4FM , Southern, and Talk Radio. Spirit FM and Kiss 105 made their debuts starting with a 20.3% and 4.2% share respectively.

The London stations continue to do well, Capital Gold 1548 AM and FM have an increase in reach and hours – combined share 23.4% which is the highest in two years. Virgin London’s reach is up by 18.5% quarter on quarter, 10% year on year and Heart 106.2’s reach and hours are up 40% year on year, it’s share now at record high of 4.7%.

Radio 1 has seen falls in reach and share for this quarter due to the face of increasing competition but still manages to dominate the market for 15-24 year olds, attracting 40% of them and 30% of it’s secondary target audience, the 25-34s. Other BBC radio stations results include Radio 2’s share of total radio listening continues to grow, Radio 3’s share is fractionally up year-on-year, with reach showing a slight fall, Radio 4 has remained stable, with just over 8 million listeners tuning in each week and Radio 5 Live has performed well even though there were less sporting results this quarter. The average Radio 5 Live listener now tunes in for 5 hours and 31 minutes, which is up 22 minutes year-on-year and 15 minutes quarter-on-quarter.