Rajar Q3 1997 – Local Commercial Radio

Despite an overall drop in radio listening, Rajar’s Q3 1997 results show that commercial radio has again achieved a higher audience share than the BBC – 58% compared to 55%. However, virtually all local commercial stations have seen an audience reach loss compared to the third quarter of last year. Most significantly are audience reach losses for 963 Liberty, which saw a 43.8% drop, and Capital 95.8 FM which suffered a significant 16.6% loss of audience compared to last year’s figures.

Only five local commercial stations managed to increase their weekly reach, notably ethnic communities’ Spectrum Radio on 558 AM which saw a 13% increase, and Jazz FM 100.4 which gained 9.1% in audience reach.

Only six local commercial stations increased their share of listening year on year; most significantly were Capital Gold 1548 AM, which took a 5.9% share (+1.1% point) and Sunrise Radio which gained 0.2% points giving it a 1.8% listening share.

Overall commercial radio’s total listening hours have increased from 400 million Q3 1996 to 407 million this quarter. This is largely due to increase in listening for local commercial stations as the nationals have lost listening hours year on year and quarter on quarter. The result is that local commercial’s total audience share is up 2.1% year on year. The speech stations have increased their reach and hours quarter on quarter with loss of audience reach, as the station normally caters for fans of upbeat dance music, a Capital representative said.

Against speculation in the Guardian this morning that an increase in Other Listening represented a growing interest in pirate radio, it is believed that the Other Listening figures were significantly bolstered by Xfm’s test transmissions. Xfm, at the time, did not feature on the listening diary which RAJAR uses to record listeners’ habits.

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