It’s that time of the year that broadcast PR experts like 4media group look forward to. Yep. The latest set of figures from RAJAR, are out. RAJAR, which monitors UK radio listening, has revealed the movers and shakers in the world of radio and their audiences.
Regional BBC Radio has generally continued on a downward spiral with BBC Radio Lancashire (191,000 to 164,000), BBC Radio Leicester (185,000 to 167,000) and BBC Radio Solent (240,000 to 218,000) all seeing significant drops.
However, it isn’t all doom and gloom for regional BBC radio, with BBC Radio Leeds (174,000), BBC Radio Sheffield (183,000 to 260,000), and BBC Radio London (443,000 to 565,000) all making weighty gains. Good news for the broadcast PR world, with regional BBC’s forming the bread and butter of broadcast day schedules.
On the national side of the spectrum, BBC Radio 4 saw a massive slump seeing their listening figures down by 750,000. Radio 5 Live is also down by 10%.
Radio 1 has also seen a slight drop in figures from 9.6m in the third quarter to 9.37m in the fourth. However since Greg James took over from Nick Grimshaw in September the breakfast show is actually up to over five million, from 4.8 million.
Over in the commercial radio sector, an area which is a key target for broadcast PR, Bauer Media’s Magic network hit a record high of 4.2 million listeners, while Global’s Heart network drew in a healthy 9.7 million listeners.
The Wireless Group is still struggling to make any substantial impact on the commercial radio market, with Virgin Radio and TalkRadio yet to make any significant bites to their respective target audiences. One spoken word station that did have a good quarter was LBC who had a record quarter.
The station, which is spearheaded by Nick Ferrari and James O’Brien, helped the station increased its reach to 2.2 million. There was also triumph over at Union Jack, a station that plays entirely domestic content. It has become the fastest-growing audience in the UK. The station grew from the ashes of the Brexit referendum and has increased its reach by 73% year-on-year to 153,000 weekly listeners.
View a summary of the data in our infographic below:
