RTÉ‘s Oliver Callan enjoyed the biggest gain in radio listenership, the latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures show.
Callan’s show now has 355,000 listeners after a full year on RTÉ Radio 1 at 9am, with his audience rising 6,000 since the last JNLR survey, which covered the 2024 calendar year. This is 25,000 higher than the listenership he inherited a year ago.
Radio 1 is the most popular station in the State, reaching 1.3 million listeners every week. Its market share of 35–54 year-olds has grown, outperforming all other stations in that demographic. RTÉ 2FM retains its position as the most-listened-to by 15-34 year-olds, now reaching 714,000 listeners every week.
Brendan O’Connor added 5,000 listeners on Saturdays since the last survey, taking his audience to 363,000, while his Sunday listenership was up by 3,000 to 369,000.
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On weekdays, Morning Ireland added 5,000 listeners since the last survey to register an audience of 471,000. This meant it comfortably retained its place as the most listened-to programme on Irish radio.
Today with Claire Byrne has 348,000 listeners, down 1,000 since the last survey, while Louise Duffy’s audience of 223,000 dropped 5,000. News at One recorded an audience of 297,000 – down 10,000 since the last survey – a decrease that can likely be attributed to post-election fatigue.
Joe Duffy’s Liveline is down 7,000 listeners since the last survey, with its audience of 307,000 advancing 6,000 year-on-year. Ray D’Arcy dropped 2,000 to reach 192,000, while Drivetime dropped by 5,000 to a listenership of 221,000. Sunday with Miriam has held strong at 304,000.
RTÉ 2FM, which recently launched a new schedule after a number of interim presenter stints, saw its breakfast slot audience fall by 4,000 since the last survey to 148,000; its drive-time show is down 12,000 at 133,000.
Speaking about the latest figures, Patricia Monahan, director of audio at RTÉ said: “We are privileged that so many listeners continue to choose to engage with us every week, making RTÉ stations the most listened to in Ireland. We are particularly delighted to welcome new and younger listeners as we expand our reach and relevance to new audiences.”
Today FM has 914,000 weekly listeners, making it the State‘s most listened to commercial radio station. The station recorded a daily reach of 466,000 and a market share of 7.9 per cent. The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show’s audience of 204,000 is up 2,000 since the last survey; Dave Moore is down 4,000 to 193,000; while Ray Foley’s audience is recorded at 153,000, a drop of 11,000; and Louise Cantillon took a hit of 14,000, bringing her listeners to 107,000.
On the same station, The Last Word with Matt Cooper was down by 4,000 at 163,000.
On Bauer Media Audio’s national stations, Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show remains the most popular programme on commercial radio, with 224,000 listeners, down 13,000 from the last survey; Andrea Gilligan’s Lunchtime Live audience is down 5,000 to 134,000; and Moncrieff is down 4,000 to 108,000.
At the weekend, market share soared for The Anton Savage Show, whose Saturday figures are up 10,000 to 133,000, matching its Sunday listenership, which is up 5,000; Off the Ball is up 21,000 to 157,000 on Saturday, and a boost of 19,000 since the last survey brings its Sunday audience to 146,000.
The JNLR survey, compiled on behalf of the radio industry by research firm Ipsos, shows 3.83 million people listened to the radio every week for the past 12 months. That was down by 70,000 listeners compared to 3.9 million last year.
