2FM enjoys gains for weekday shows
According to the latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) results, Breakfast Republic saw its audience increase year-on-year by 27,000 to 178,000, while The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene gained 8,000 listeners bringing its total to 144,000.
Tracey Clifford also had a good performance with 124,000 people now tuning in, up 10,000 and Eoghan McDermott gained 6,000 bringing his total to 118,000.
“Three years ago, we started a programme strategy to appeal to younger listeners and this is now paying off as most of 2fm’s growth has come from listeners under 35 years of age,” said Dan Healy, head of 2FM.
For RTÉ Radio 1, the results were mixed with some decent gains but also some substantial losses.
The news programmes appear to have been particularly badly impacted with Morning Ireland’s listenership falling by 13,000 year-on-year to 436,000 and News at One falling by a significant 23,000 to 325,000.
Liveline now has 381,000 people tuning in, 10,000 fewer than 12 months ago while Marian Finucane’s audience on Saturday fell by 19,000 year-on-year to 381,000, though she did see an increase of 11,000 in her listenership on Sunday with 332,000 now tuning into that show.
Two other big stars for the radio station also saw gains. Ryan Tubridy has an audience of 334,000, 15,000 more than 12 months ago while Sean O’Rourke’s 342,000 listenership is 16,000 more than this time last year.
Ray D’Arcy’s gain was slightly more modest at 6,000. He now has 217,000 people tuning into his afternoon show. There was also good news for Corkman John Creedon whose audience went up by 11,000 to 47,000.
For Today FM, the results were mixed. Breakfast show presenter Ian Dempsey saw his listenership fall by 17,000 to 163,000 and at 164,000, Dermot and Dave had 10,000 fewer people tuning in than the slot had a year ago. Matt Cooper’s audience on the Last Word fell by 8,000 to 131,000.
The news was much better for Fergal D’Arcy in his mid afternoon slot which yet again saw an increase, this time by 13,000 to 107,000. Al Porter is only new to the early afternoon slot, but already he has increased audience by 4,000 to 107,000.
“The past 6 months has seen a huge amount of changes for Today FM – we have rebranded, launched two major prime time shows, rolled out a massive new brand campaign and signed rising star Al Porter,” said a spokeswoman.
Newstalk said it hadn’t completed a full year of its new schedule so could not give comparisons, but it said Newstalk Breakfast had an audience of 119,000, The Pat Kenny Show had 151,000, High Noon with George Hook had 98,000, Moncrieff had 77,000 and Newstalk Drive had 130,000.
Meanwhile in Cork, Red FM said it now has a listenership of 138,000, it’s highest ever and 21,000 ahead of its nearest competitor and that its presenter Neil Prendeville has an audience of 69,000, close to his rival in the mid-morning show.
