‘The numbers show how strong radio is for advertisers’

Mike Williamson, head of radio at Carat, says today’s RAJAR results represent a superb year overall but some stations need to re-focus after disappointing results…

Looking at the topline numbers, it’s very much a solid overall performance but little more. Overall listening is down slightly, commercial share is also down – not the best outcome! But putting this into perspective of a superb last year, these numbers once again show how strong radio is for advertisers.

46.7 million weekly listeners is still huge, and this is only down 0.1% YoY. Commercial radio still reaches 32.8 million weekly listeners, down only 0.7% YoY. Within this, National commercial stations are up 0.2% YoY.

Several successful trends standout. Capital’s recent rich vein of form continues. Capital London has added 15% more listeners YoY for an eight year high, and it’s breakfast show jumped 25% – a huge achievement considering Johnny Vaughan left in mid-November. Surely a positive sign that it’s the brand that appeals to listeners rather than individual presenters. Heavy promotions of the successful Jingle Bell Ball will have no doubt helped attract listeners.

The Capital Network is closing in on its sister brand Heart for the number one commercial station in the UK. The gap has closed from 13% to 5% in a year. talkSPORT’s exclusive coverage of the Rugby World Cup has paid off, reporting their best ever Q4 reach. They are now comfortably settled ahead of the 3 million listener target that they were some way off of 18 months ago.

There are signs that some stations need to re-focus after disappointing results. Heart has struggled recently and is now only fifth in London in terms of market share, its London breakfast show is down to fourth place and the Heart Network is now under 7.5 million listeners. Classic FM saw a third consecutive drop in reach and XFM has lost 10% of its audience YoY. These may turn out to be a one off blip for some, but I’d expect these stations to invest in heavy marketing campaigns over the next few months.

With several stations going from strength to strength, there are clear signs that the radio audiences are still growing through great content and heavy investment from the radio owners.