Rajar Q2 – ILR Stations

The Rajar results for Quarter 2 1994 show the majority of ILR stations increasing their weekly reach and share of listening against the same quarter last year. Only a hand full of stations experienced a drop in weekly reach of more than 2 percentage points.

Stations recording the highest weekly reaches in this period include several Scottish based stations; Moray Firth recorded a weekly reach of 52%, Borders 51%, Northsound 48% and CFM 45%. The results for these stations are unsurprising given that they face no direct competition from other commercial stations, as their transmission areas do not overlap with any other ILR stations. Each of these stations recorded a share of listening in their area of more than 30%.

At the other end of the scale stations whose reach is below 10% include Sunrise Midlands (8%), 96.7BCR (8%) Q96FM (6%) and Mercury Extra AM (5%). The highest increase in weekly reach was achieved by Minster FM in York, its audience almost doubled from 47,000 to 90,000 giving a weekly reach of 25%. The station’s total hours more than doubled from 371,000 to 1,049,000, taking its share of listening from 6% to 17.2%.

Several FM stations achieved substantial audience increases while their AM partners recorded a fall in weekly reach. Red Rose Rock’s weekly reach rose from 24% to 32% (348,000) while Red Rose Gold dropped by 1% point to 21%. Share of listening for Red Rose Rock increased by almost 9% points to 19.5%, while Red Rose Gold fell slightly from 14.6% to 12.2%. Reading based 2 Ten FM increased its reach by 9% points to 32% (245,000), while its AM counterpart 210 Classic Gold dropped from a weekly reach of 14% to 7%.

Station’s whose share of listening fell significantly year-on-year include Dundee-based Tay Radio, down by 4.6% points to 25.8%, and Plymouth Sound, down by 2.4% points to 17.9%. Two stations joined Rajar for the first time in Quarter 2. Marcher Coast in Colwyn Bay achieved a weekly reach of 27% (59,000) and a share of listening of 19.9%. The Londonderry based Q102.9 FM achieved a reach of 22% (35,000) and a share of listening of 13.5%.