RAJAR Results Q1 2004: BBC Radio One Stuck In Slump

Year on year analysis of listening for national radio services during the first quarter of 2004 reveals that BBC Radio 1 continued to see its audience decline, despite the arrival of loudmouth DJ, Chris Moyles, in the all-important breakfast slot.

The BBC’s flagship youth station saw its weekly reach drop by 4.8% to just under the crucial 10 million mark as its share of listening slipped by 0.3% points.

It had been hoped that Moyles would boost the flagging ratings seen by his predecessor, Sara Cox. The self proclaimed saviour of Radio 1 has managed to slow the tide of departing listeners, but the station still has a long way to go in winning back its core youth audience.

Radio 2 also had a less than impressive period in the three months to March, with its weekly reach declining by 2.5% year on year to just over the 13 million mark. The station saw its share of listening dip by 0.4% points during the same period to 15.3% suggesting it could still be suffering from the departure of veteran DJ Jimmy Young.

A lacklustre first quarter for the BBC’s radio operations was capped off by Radio 4, which saw its weekly reach decline by 6.6% to just over 9.3 million. The high-brow speech station also saw its share of listening dip 0.8% points, despite reports that digital radio was fuelling an increase in its listenership (see Digital Radio Listeners Tune In For Longer).

Things were also less than rosy in the commercial sector and Classic FM saw its weekly reach decline by 4.8% year on year to around the 6.5 million mark. The station also saw its share of listening dip to 4.5%. Earlier this year, Classic FM launched its first foray into advertiser-funded programming with a series specially created hour-long shows backed by insurance company Prudential (see Classic FM Moves Into Advertiser-Funded Programming).

Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT suffered a 4.8% year on year drop in weekly reach to just over 2 million, but managed to salvage some dignity by increasing its share of listening by 0.2% points during the same period to 1.9%. talkSPORT will soon begin broadcasting its syndicated Eurolink sports bulletins across over 80 radio stations nation-wide to cover the much anticipated Euro 2004 football championship in Portugal (see Tindle Radio Signs For Eurolink Sport Bulletins).

Digital radio saw positive increases in listenership with speech-based broadcaster oneword notching up an impressive 25% increase in weekly reach to 76,000. Emap’s rock-focussed Kerrang! also performed well with its weekly reach rising by 0.5% to 775,000. However, the station’s share of listening dipped by 0.1% points during the same period to 0.2%.

Emap recently set a date for the launch of Kerrang! Radio’s first FM station. Broadcasting to the West Midlands from 10 June, Kerrang 105.2 will mark the first of many FM stations planned by Emap using its newly established hero brands (see Emap Sets Launch Date For Kerrang’s FM Debut).

However, Emap’s high profile Smash Hits station was less fortunate, with a sharp 15.5% year on year decline in weekly reach to just under 650,000. The station also saw its share of listening drop by 0.1% points to 0.2%.

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