Oliver Callan has more listeners to his 9am weekday show on RTÉ Radio 1 than the slot had in its final full year with Ryan Tubridy at the helm, the latest radio figures show, while over on Newstalk, Pat Kenny has reached a fresh record high.
Callan’s audience has climbed to 336,000, according to the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey for July 2023 to the end of last June. This is 2,000 higher than the listenership commanded by Tubridy in the previous 12-month period.
The rise will be welcome news for RTÉ after a slight dip in the figures for the slot in JNLR data released three months ago.
But Callan has clawed back 6,000 listeners since the survey for the April 2023-March 2024 period, which took him above the audience number reported shortly after Tubridy was taken off air in the wake of RTÉ's hidden payments scandal.
Overall, Radio 1 maintained a 20.7 per cent market share of peak-time listening, with Morning Ireland remaining the most listened-to programme on Irish radio. Its listenership of 486,000 is up 17,000 since the last survey and up 46,000 year-on-year.
All weekday peak-time shows on Radio 1 recorded gains with the exception of News at One, which slipped 6,000 to 295,000. On weekends, Brendan O’Connor’s audience dropped 12,000 to 340,000 on a Saturday and by 9,000 to 346,000 on a Sunday, but both figures remain above where they stood a year ago.
Miriam O’Callaghan was among the weekend presenters to make gains, as Sunday with Miriam’s listenership rose 5,000 to 309,000, up 22,000 year-on-year. The standout performer on an annual basis, however, is Countrywide, which has 277,000 listeners, up 22,000 since the last survey and 68,000 year-on-year. The JNLR’s weekend figures tend to be more volatile than those measured for weekday.
Over on RTÉ 2FM, its weekday peak-time shows all made gains and its market share nudged up to 6.2 per cent. The drivetime show, presented by the 2 Johnnies for much of the survey period before the duo decided to leave the station, rose by 6,000 to 157,000, their highest listenership in the slot.
In midmorning, 2FM has 141,000 listeners, also up 6,000, indicating that new presenter Laura Fox is performing well. Fox hosted the show in the final months of the survey period, which was before predecessor Jennifer Zamparelli confirmed her departure, and she has since been installed as the permanent host.
RTÉ said 2FM bosses were meeting about 140 applicants this week and next as it seeks to fill vacancies created by a string of exits from the station. It received 500 applications after an open call.
Newstalk, meanwhile, advanced to its highest ever market share of 8.7 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent. Kenny surged again to a listenership of 244,000 in midmorning, his highest on the station, cementing his position as the most listened-to presenter on commercial radio. He has gained 15,000 listeners since the last survey as he continues to build on momentum that began a year ago, when he had 179,000 listeners, 65,000 fewer than he does now.
Two other shows on Newstalk also registered all-time highs for their slots. Newstalk Breakfast, presented by Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman, now has 168,000 listeners, up 11,000 since the last survey and 23,000 year-on-year. Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan added 19,000 listeners to reach 137,000, up 35,000 year-on-year.
On Today FM, which like Newstalk is owned by Bauer Media Audio, there was slippage across its weekday peak-time shows, although Dave Moore’s listenership of 223,000 in midmorning is 7,000 higher than that enjoyed by the slot, which he previously co-presented with Dermot Whelan, a year ago.
The JNLR report, compiled for the radio industry by research firm Ipsos, found that more than 3.4 million people listen to the radio on a typical day, with the average adult listening for more than four hours.
“It is clear that radio listening is booming in Ireland and today’s figures are a great reminder that Irish radio is a central part of people’s lives with brilliant content being consumed by millions of listeners every single day,” said Ciarán Cunningham, chief executive of industry group Radiocentre Ireland.
- Sign up for Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
