September 2001 RAJAR – Local Commercial Stations

The following tables show the best and worst performers, in terms of weekly reach and share of listening, of the local commercial stations broadcasting outside London.

Among those gaining the largest increases period on period in terms of weekly reach was the Wireless Group’s Big AM, which managed a 77.8% increase taking it to 32,000. GWR’s Classic Gold Digital Plymouth also saw a good increase, of 42.1% period on period.

At the other end of the scale, Eleven Seventy AM saw a heavy 23.5% decrease period on period in weekly reach, while Magic 999 did not share the good fortune of other Magic stations, and witnessed a 17.6% drop in reach during the quarter.

In terms of share of listening, the best increase was seen at Chiltern FM, which increased its share by 5.8 percentage points compared to the preceding quarter. Close behind were both Tay AM and Wyvern FM, which both saw 4.4 percentage point increases. Bringing up the rear were West Sound, which dropped 3.9 percentage points in this analysis, Lantern FM which lost 3.6 and Champion FM, which dropped 3.5.

From the beginning of this third quarter of 2001, amendments have been made to the diary self completion questionnaires used to collect radio listening data for RAJAR. This was in order to extend the questions asked about the various means of listening to radio. The new questions should help track the pace of change in the radio market and allow for selection of respondents for future detailed work.

London’s Liberty 963-972 reported on a new TSA of 6,587,726 this period, has altered its name (see below) and now reports on a quarterly basis. Another London station, Ritz Country 1035 has also altered its reporting period, to half-yearly.

There was one new group reporting during Q3- Total CN Group.

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