The Rajar reports are the radio industry’s version of the TV BARB panel. A panel of listeners complete a daily questionnaire recording which radio stations they listen to and for how long. These results are published on a quarterly basis. From Q2 2007 listeners have been able to tell RAJAR if they listened on AM/FM, DAB Digital Radio, Digital TV (Sky/Freeview/Cable) or via the Internet.

General Overview

Radio achieved a record reach of 46.8 million people, or 91% of the UK adult population, listening to a station for at least five minutes during the course of an average week. Commercial radio's reach was 32.8 million people – this is the 4th consecutive quarter of growth for commercial radio and its highest reach in the last decade.

Commercial radio increased its share from 41.3% in Q1 to 43.2% in Q2. In contrast the BBC saw its share fall from 56.5% in Q1 to 54.6% in Q2. The BBC’s reach fell from 34.88m to 34.59m.

National Radio

The three National commercial stations all had good results. talkSPORT benefitted from their World Cup coverage, recording their highest ever weekly reach for Q2, and their second highest reach of all time (2.5 million reach). They recorded record figures for 15-34men (744,000 reach, up 14% yoy), abc1ads (1.4m, up 8%) & abc1men (1.1m).

Classic FM is still the largest commercial station in the UK with 5.7m weekly listeners – this is up on Q1 but down slightly year on year. Absolute Radio’s network reach is back up to over 2 million listeners – the highest since January 2009. This is still 500,000 behind talkSPORT but is up 11% on Q1 & 8% yoy. They benefitted from their World Cup activity fronted by Baddiel & Skinner – this bodes well for their new Premiership coverage in the upcoming season.

The London Market

Magic 105.4’s crown has slipped as the largest London reaching station, as Heart 106.2 have pipped them to the post with 2.185 million listeners per week vs. 2.046 million. However, Magic still put in a very strong performance seeing their London market share grow to 6.4% vs. Hearts 5.1% to put them in top position. Heart recorded their highest ever reach.

The interesting story is not the battle for the top spot but Kiss 100’s performance; they are 11.8% up year on year with a reach of 1.848 million and an impressive growth in share from 4.1% to 5.6%. 95.8 Capital Radio grew their reach by 21,000. Not such a positive result however for their share as they have slipped from 6% to 4.9%.

LBC saw a growth of 82,000 listeners; their reach is their highest since 1994. Absolute’s London reach has grown 17% and hours are up 12% on quarter.

Reach (000’s) Q2 2010 Market Share % Q2 2010

1 Heart 106.2 FM 2,185 1 Magic 105.4 6.4
2 Magic 105.4 2,046 2 Kiss 100 5.6
3 95.8 Capital FM 1,921 3 Heart 106.2 5.1
4 Kiss 100 1,848 4 LBC 97.3 5.0
5 Classic FM (London) 1,308 5 95.8 Captial FM 4.9
6 LBC 97.3 960 6 Classic FM (London) 4.3
7 Total Absolute (Ldn) 821 7 Total Absolute (Ldn) 2.8
8 talkSPORT (London) 613 8 talkSPORT (London) 1.8
9 XFM 104.9 553 9 XFM 104.9 1.4
10 Smooth Radio 415 10 Gold London 1.3

London Breakfast

The Sony award-winning Capital breakfast show has once again retained the number one spot at breakfast in the London commercial market; however the gap between their rivals is narrowing with Heart and Kiss hot on Capital’s heels. Heart, Kiss and Magic all saw impressive increases in reach whilst LBC remained flat at 576,000 weekly listeners.

What is interesting is the market share for London breakfast shows, the playing field much like the reach is evening out in stark comparison to the previous quarter.

REACH 15+ (6-9 am) MARKET SHARE 15+ (6-9 am)
Q2 2010 (000’s) Q2 2010 (%)
1 95.8 Capital Radio 933 1 95.8 Capital Radio 5.7
2 Heart 106.2 FM 925 2 LBC 97.3 5.5
3 Kiss 100 903 3 Kiss 100 5.4
4 Magic 105.4 839 4 Heart 106.2 FM 5.2
5 LBC 97.3 576 5 Magic 105.4 4.6

Kiss FM’s Rickie, Melvin and Charlie breakfast show has gone from strength to strength with reach up from 656,000 to 903,000 listeners.

Local Radio

Global Radio, the UK’s largest commercial radio group, continues to dominate the top 10 commercial station networks with Heart in pole position once more – it is unchanged in terms of market share on quarter, at 5.8%, and down 0.1% on the year, having achieved 5.9% in Q2 2009. Heart East Midlands in particular is at its highest level at 19 per cent reach now with 423,000 listeners, up from 350,000 last quarter.

Bauer Radio now reaches a record audience for the network, with 13 million listeners each week. The Magic network now reaches a total audience of 3.7m across the UK – up 2.6% on year, and the Kiss network now reaches 3.7m listeners – up 13% on year. Big City network recorded its highest reach in over 3 years, with 4.8m people now tuning in every week (up 5% on the quarter) and 42m listening hours (up 2% on the quarter). Notably CFM has increased from 33 per cent reach to 43 per cent reach year-on-year, and Radio Aire in Leeds jumped from 11 per cent reach to 16 per cent suddenly, adding almost 50,000 listeners.

GMG has seen positive results, with the group reporting almost five million listeners in total and Smooth Radio North East, North West and Glasgow recording their biggest ever audience figures in what will be their last quarter with local programmes. All real radio stations except Yorkshire are up, with 2.38 million adults tuning into Real Radio network each week (up 100,000 on the quarter) to consume 21.5 million hours each week (up 200,000 on the quarter).

The 10 commercial station networks in terms of % market share:

Station Q2 2010 Q1 2010 Q22009
1 Heart Network (UK) (H) 5.8 5.8 5.9
2 Classic FM (Q) 3.8 3.7 3.9
3 Galaxy Network (UK) (H) 2.7 2.6 2.5
4 Total Magic (Q) 2.4 2.4 2.5
5 Total Real Radio (H) 2.1 2.1 2.1
6 Total Smooth Radio (H) 2.1 2.1 2.1
7 talkSPORT (Q) 1.7 1.6 1.8
8 Total Kiss Network (H) 1.9 1.7 1.9
9 Total LBC (UK) (H) 1.3 1.3 1.1
10 Total Absolute Radio Network
(Q) 1.4 1.4 1.3

Digital

Digital posted strong results this quarter, with listening share up 17% yoy to 24.6%, weekly reach up 11% to 20 million, listening hours up 17% to 253 million per week, and DAB ownership up 7.6%, to over 18 million adults. DAB radio is still the most popular device to listen to digital radio on, but DTV and Internet listening have risen significantly. Listening via digital TV is now at 4.1%, with internet at 2.9%. Radio listening via mobile phone remains steady with 12.5% of adults listening via their mobile; in the younger 15-24 year demographic, this rises to 29.8%. Many radio stations are now providing Smartphone apps to enhance the mobile phone listening experience, and a recent RAJAR study found that 20% of all Smartphone owners have a radio app.

Absolute Radio continues to outperform the digital market average, with 45.7% of their listening being on a digital platform. Absolute 80s posted another strong set of results, increasing by just over 9% in reach (to 288,000) and hours. Absolute Classic Rock also performed strongly, also increasing reach and hours by 9%. Planet Rock increased reach by 4% to its highest ever reach of 718,000. Podcasts also proved very popular, with Absolute having 3 million podcasts downloaded in June. Absolute expect to see further growth in Q3, as Absolute 90s and Absolute Extra are added to their figures.

Over at Bauer, 3 of their digital stations remain in the top 10. The Hits was up 8% with over 1.1m listeners and along with Smash Hits on 990,000 listeners, are the 2 most listened to commercial digital only stations. Heat also had a very strong result, with 50.3% rise in reach since Q1. NME Radio, recently at risk from complete closure, has doubled its audience share with a rise in overall hours to 1.3m. New owners Town and Country Broadcasting were pleased with the results, seeing them as “a solid base with a strong audience profile”.

Over on the BBC, 6 Music saw another very strong result following news that the BBC Trust has reprieved its closure – it is now the largest digital radio station in the UK. Its reach increased by 100.7% yoy to almost 1.2m, whilst hours increased by 31% to over 10m, making it only marginally smaller than Radio 3. BBC Asian Network, which is still facing closure, also posted a rise in listenership with an increase in reach of 3.8% to 437,000 listeners. Other BBC stations didn’t fare so well, with Radio 5 Live Sports Extra being down 19.1% yoy despite the World Cup, and 1 Xtra’s audience down 5.4% yoy to 600,000.

Consistent growth in digital listening is key to the digital radio switchover agenda over the next few years, as one of the criteria the government has set for switchover is for digital to account for at least 50% of all radio listening.

Reach 15+ (000s)
QonQ YonY Q2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2 2009
1 BBC 6 Music (Q) 16.7 100.7 1,194 1,023 595
2 The Hits (Q) 7.9 -8.4 1,138 1,055 1,243
3 Smash Hits Radio (Q) 16.1 -14.3 990 853 1,155
4 BBC7 (Q) -9.5 13.8 949 1,049 834
5 Planet Rock (Q) 3.5 1.3 718 694 709
6 Heat (Q) 50.3 17.5 672 447 572
7 1Xtra from the BBC (Q) -9.5 -5.4 600 663 634
8 Jazz (Q) -1.7 -3.9 463 471 482
9 BBC Asian Network 22.4 3.8 437 357 421
10 NME (Q) 11.9 17.7 253 226 215

BBC

As UK radio listening surged to its highest level for more than a decade in the three months to the end of June, the BBC also benefited from the period that included the general election campaign and alliance-building period, and the World Cup.

Reach (000’s) Q2 2010 Q2 2009
BBC Radio 2 13729 13424
BBC Radio 1 11810 11342
BBC Radio 4 10403 9999
Five Live 6763 6415
BBC Radio 3 1858 2021

Radio 5 Live reported its biggest audience since its launch in 1990, with a weekly reach of 6.76 million listeners, up 5.4% year on year and 4.4% quarter on quarter. Its share was 4.8%, and clearly benefited from both the political and sporting news being at the top of many listener’s agendas.

Radio 4 broke through the 10 million listener barrier, with a record average weekly audience of 10.4 million between April and June, with its best ever audiences for shows including Today, PM and The Archers. The station's weekly audience was up 4% year on year and 3.7% on the last quarter, with a share of 12.5%. This was Radio 4's best quarterly figure since Rajar's new methodology in 1999; the station had a 12.5% share.

Radio 4's Today pulled in a record 6.98 million weekly listeners. Record audiences were also achieved by other Radio 4 news shows including the Six O'Clock News and PM.

Radio 1 pulled in a record audience of 11.81 million listeners, up 4.1% year on year and 0.6% quarter on quarter. The station's share was 9.3%. Chris Moyles

Radio 2 attracted 13.73 million listeners on average each week, up 2.3% year on year but down 5.8% quarter on quarter. Its share was 15.9%: Chris Evans didn’t contribute to this, having lost 1 million of Radio 2’s Breakfast listeners Q-o-Q, but he’s still doing better than Sir Tel. His figures are still the second highest total ever recorded for an individual radio programme with a weekly reach of 8.25m (down for 9.53m in Q1).

There was less positive news at BBC Radio 3, which reported an average audience of 1.86 million, down 8.1% year on year and 8.2% quarter on quarter.

Summary

This was a great set of results for radio in general and especially for commercial radio. Radio listening has increased to its 2nd consecutive all time high, and the BBC/Commercial split has swung 2 points in favour of commercial radio’s favour.

The individual success stories are talkSPORT and their hugely popular World Cup coverage, Kiss FM who are now No.2 in London in terms of share, BBC 6 Music becoming the most popular digital radio station in the UK and the BBC talk stations, with Radio 4 & Five Live capitalising on the popularity of the World Cup and General Election.

I have a vested interest in local radio, that I should make clear.

On first hearing about the news of Heart (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/21/heart-global-radio-restructure) , Smooth (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/29/smooth-radio-merge-regional-stations) and even Gold reducing the amount of local and regional programming I was more than a little upset.

So why do I like local and regional radio programming?

Firstly it allows us across the markettiers4dc Group, including Sound Creative in particular, where I work, to upweight local messages across any number of the campaigns we deliver.

Secondly it was responsible for some of the greatest days of my life as a child. You see, it was local radio, in my case Reading's 210 FM, that at the slightest hint of snow we would gather round the radio with a view to establishing if school was cancelled and we had a day of placing carrotts on the faces of snow men.

Local radio is at the very heart of many communities and is not purely responsible of alliviating children of their educational duties.

A prime example of where local radio was placed at the very heart of a community can be found back in 1997 at the Grand National. The event was cancelled after an IRA bomab scare threat (http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/12/01/local_history_aintree_1997_feature.shtml). I have never been lucky enough to go to Aintree but I am assured by friends that the car park is in the middle of the track. So you had a large number of people in Liverpool without anywhere to stay, without their bags, cars and belongings. You also had the added headache of most hotels completely full because it was Grand National season.

A combination of the people of Liverpool's good nature and BBC Radio Merseyside offered a response to be remembered: The radio station set up a sort of 'crisis swap shop' (my term, not theirs). Those stranded in Liverpool were able to call into BBC Radio Merseyside and station what they needed, “ ...... we are two couples after a bed for the night – our car is stranded in Aintree, you see” – and listeners from BBC Radio Merseyside would call up and offer spare rooms, lifts from Aintree and even a change of clothes for the destitute race goers.

So what will happen now local radio is being reduced?

Well let’s be clear, whilst the amount of local content is being reduced local radio is not being taken away completely. Heart will still give us 18 Regional Stations and of those all will have a local Breakfast, Afternoon DriveTime show and a weekend breakfast show.

Further to that those stations that aren’t owned by Global Radio and GMG are sticking slightly more rigidly to their original promise of local performance.

The changes will result in more ‘networked programming’ , however. This is where ‘less local radio’ should reap rewards in the form of large audiences, particularly for commercial radio. The Big top 40 is a networked show that runs across 145 local stations and still reaches more adults than the top 40 countdown on BBC Radio One.

Networked programming allows commercial radio to secure national big name talent and deliver it to listeners on a local level.

Costs of local radio should be reduced and, once we are out of the current economic situation, commercial radio should be able to use this money to invest in better programming.

It is also worth noting that there are ways to use regional radio on a local level that we have been employing for a little while: My colleagues within markettiers4dc will talk to you about local newsrooms which all feed into regional hubs. In Sound Creative we are able to employ local transmitters for pre-recorded trails to drive listeners to an event or make listeners aware of a localised message. Even with national commercial station Classic FM we have placed trails on the London only transmitter to drive footfall and traffic to the website of a London only store.

So is the demise of local radio such a bad thing?

We may get better programming and commercial radio should get stronger. The markettiers4dc Group may have to work harder to secure effective localised coverage, something we are not adverse to.

I feel most for kids waking up in the morning when there is the slightest hint of snow on the ground, however. You see 210 FM was changed to Heart Berkshire and this station has subsequently merged with what was Fox FM (now Heart Oxfordshire) to make Heart Thames Valley and now has to cover an area twice the size of what it used to. I know from experience how agonising the wait was before the breakfast show presenters told me if my school was cancelled. Now there will be at least twice as many schools to go through.