RTÉ HAS retained its hold on the 10 most listened to radio shows in the State, according to the latest JNLR/TNSmrbi listenership figures released yesterday.
Eight of its 10 most popular programmes saw increases in listenership in the period from October 2008 to September 2009, when compared with July 2008 to June 2009.
Its flagship programme Morning Irelandhas continued its upward trajectory, with 467,000 now tuning in to the morning news show. Joe Duffy's Livelinesaw a drop in listeners of 3,000 after a lengthy period of continuous gains, but it remains the second most listened to show.
Marian Finucane saw strong gains for her Saturday and Sunday shows, while Ryan Tubridy's morning show gained 13,000 listeners. Miriam O'Callaghan's radio debut with her Miriam Meets . .. show has been well received, according to the latest figures, but it will be some time before her exact listenership is established, due to the way the figures are calculated.
She took over the Saturday morning Conversations with Eamon Dunphyslot in July of this year and this time slot saw a dramatic increase of 23,000 listeners when the October 2008–September 2009 period was compared with July 2008-June 2009. She moved to a Sunday morning slot in September.
RTÉ managing director Radio Clare Duignan said RTÉ Radio now had 18 of the top 20 radio programmes.
She highlighted Gerry Ryan’s gain of 3,000 listeners and said RTÉ 2fm was “fighting back, and no better man to lead that assault than Gerry Ryan”.
Today FM said it was a “red letter day” for the independent station as it had overtaken 2FM in daily market share for the first time. Today FM’s market share increased by 0.1 per cent to 10.7 per cent, while 2FM’s dropped by 0.4 per cent to 10.5 per cent.
Today FM chief executive Willie O’Reilly said overtaking 2FM was “probably the most significant business achievement in Today FM’s recent history”.
Ray D’Arcy’s team was celebrating at the station with 246,000 listeners – an increase of 11,000 since the last results in August. His is the most listened to show on the independent station.
There was bad news for his colleague Matt Cooper, who saw the gap widen between his Last Wordevening show and RTÉ's Drivetime. He had 190,000 listeners in this survey, compared with 256,000 listeners for Mary Wilson's show. She said she was "thrilled" with the news. "This is my fourth season on Drivetimeand since 2007 we've really turned the show around."
There was also good news for Newstalk's drive-time show – The Right Hook,presented by George Hook, gained 2,000 listeners on the previous survey, giving him a listenership of 112,000. Lunchtime with Eamon Keanegained an extra 6,000 listeners, bringing its listenership to 68,000, while its breakfast show, presented by Claire Byrne and Ivan Yates, gained 4,000 listeners.
The survey results indicate that 87 per cent of the adult population listen to the radio on a daily basis – an increase of 1 per cent on the previous survey. Listenership to multi-city, regional or local radio increased by 1 per cent to 57 per cent over this period. Donegal’s Highland Radio continues to have the largest market share of any local radio station, at 65.9 per cent, followed by Tipp FM, Radio Kerry and Mid West Radio.
