RAJAR Results Q2 2005:Capital Top Of The Table For Breakfast

Breakfast listening, both nationally and locally, produced mixed results in the latest RAJAR figures for the three months to June.

Nationally, BBC Radio 2 retained its position as market leader; losing just 0.36% quarter on quarter in weekly reach and attracting 8,063 million listeners to Terry Wogan’s Breakfast Show.

As the football season came to an end, talkSPORT saw the second largest decline, with the speech based station losing 12.84% period on period from its weekly reach. The decline widens the gap between its nearest rival, BBC Radio Five Live, which also experienced a slight drop, slipping by 3.12%.

The BBC’s other national stations, BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2, both enjoyed growth in their Breakfast shows during April, May and June.

Chris Moyles’ Radio 1 show increased by 1.31% year on year, giving the broadcaster his second largest weekly reach since he took over the reins from Sara Cox in 2003 (see BBC Radio 1 Drops Sara Cox From Breakfast Show).

Radio 3 was the biggest loser in terms of weekly reach, dropping by 15.43% and attracting the smallest number of listeners in the national market at just 707,000.

Elsewhere, Classic FM rose by 6.87%, commanding a weekly listenership of 3187,000.

In the London breakfast market, 95.8 Capital FM held on to its crown with Londoners preferring Johnny Vaughan’s morning show, which attracted over one million listeners, despite dropping by 13% quarter on quarter.

Rival Heart 106.2 FM lost 25.93% of its weekly reach quarter on quarter in the three months to June, widening the gap between itself and Capital, and attracting 720,000 listeners. The news will come as a blow to the capital’s second favourite breakfast station after sinking £2 million into its biggest-ever TV and press marketing campaign to promote the new “Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston” (see NewsLine).

Heart 106.2’s dip in weekly reach as enabled Magic 105.4 to gain ground in the breakfast show market, with the station attracting 702,000 listeners, despite slipping by 15.52% period on period in weekly reach.

Indie station, XFM is shown by the latest RAJAR results to be creeping up on the competition, with Christian O’Connell’s award winning breakfast show gaining an impressive 23.26% in weekly reach to command a 318,000. O’Connell recently won the coveted “Breakfast Show of the Year” award at the Sony Radio Awards in May (see Sony Radio Awards Sees BBC Sweep Board).

The award winning DJ will be moving to Virgin at the end of the year, however, allowing him to reach a much wider audience through the station’s FM and AM signals. (see Virgin Signs O’Connell As New Breakfast Host).

Weekly audience reach for Virgin’s AM and FM signals within London rose by 6.7% quarter on quarter, drawing in 637,000 listeners in Q2 2005. Elsewhere, Emap’s Kiss FM also saw an increase in weekly reach, enjoying a 5.51% rise.

Soul station, Choice FM, saw a massive 121.29% rise in weekly reach, attracting 342,000 listeners, while Capital Gold London also enjoyed an increase, gaining 36.47% quarter on quarter with 348,000 tuning in.

The Capital’s speech based radio stations saw LBC leading the way, enjoying increases in weekly share, with LBC 97.3 up by 67.35% and LBC News 1152 reporting a gain of 59.69% quarter on quarter. Meanwhile, rival BBC London 94.9 saw a 28.71% drop in weekly reach, attracting an audience of just 144,000.

RAJAR: 0207 903 5350 www.rajar.co.uk