Local radio's share of the market continues to increase at the expense of national broadcasters, the latest Joint National Listenership (JNLR) figures show.
And some fo RTE's highest-paid presenters on the morning schedule are being hardest hit with the main flaghsip shows, Morning Ireland, Marian Finucaneand Today with Pat Kennyall losing listeners.
However, 2fm, The Full Irish breakfast show presented by Ryan Tubriddy gained 20,000 listeners, while Gerry Ryan is now the most popular presenter on nation radio by increasing his audience by 11,000. Only Morning Ireland has more listeners.
The State's newest radio stations are among the regional broadcasters showing well. In Dublin, Spin 1038 recorded a 3 per cent increase in market reach to 7 per cent while Newstalk 106 went up 2 per cent to 4 per cent and Country 106.8 increased its reach by 1 per cent to 3 per cent.
The re-branded Q102, formerly Lite FM, reversed a year of decline by going up a point to 11 per cent, in the reach, or "listened yesterday" category. The stations chief executive, Mr Scott Williams said: "To make gains in such a crowded marketplace is a very impressive achievement considering the station only re-launched earlier this year."
Meanwhile, Dublin's "big two" continue to slug it out with FM 104 (+2 per cent) making gains at the expense of 98 FM (-1 per cent). Both station now have a 21 per cent reach figure. In share terms, 98 FM fell a point to 16 per cent but remain 1 per cent ahead of its main rival which went despite its 2 per cent increase.
In the South East, the State's first, and only regional licence-holder, Beat FM maintained its powerful presence just a year after coming on air with a market reach of 18 per cent.
"The figures also show that our radio station is extremely well targeted as almost 90 per cent of our listeners are in our core 15-34 year old target market," the station's chief executive, Mr Kieran McGeary said.
For RTE, the downward trend of recent years continues. Of the 87 per cent of the population that listen radio, Radio One's reach was down 1 per cent at 27 per cent, 2FM fell a point to 17 per cent while the Limerick-based classical music station, Lyric FM, was unchanged at 3 per cent.
In terms of market share, a statistic which gives a better indication of stations' performance against each other, local/regional radio was up 4 per cent at 48 per cent, while RTE's stable fell by nearly 2 per cent.
The State-aided broadcaster managed to put a positive spin on the figures noting that its programmes occupy all spots the top ten most listened to shows.
Morning Irelandremains the most popular programme, while Five Seven Livereached an all-time high of 224,000 listeners and Livelinehas increased from 334,000 to 353,000 listeners.
Managing director of radio Mr Adrian Moynes, said: "We are particularly pleased with the impact of our new evening schedule on RTÉ Radio 1 where there is a significant increase in audience figures."
The independent national radio station, Today FM also continued its decline with share down decline continued in the past 12 months with share down 1 per cent to 9 per cent and reach down 2 per cent to 14 per cent.
Today's JNLR/TNS mrbi survey covers the a year from July 2003 to June 2004 and are compared against July 2002 — June 2003 and indicates a 1 per cent increase in radio listenership generally - reversing a number of years of decline.