Cooper overtakes 'Drivetime' rivals

RTÉ came up smelling of roses on Valentine's Day with increases in listenership in seven out of its top eight radio shows.

The latest JNLR/TNSmrbi survey also brought good news for independent broadcaster Today FM where Matt Cooper leap-frogged over his RTÉ Drivetime rivals by gaining 11,000 more listeners since the last survey.

Newstalk, which began providing a national service 18 months ago, saw a 0.1 per cent increase in its market share. It now holds a 3.4 per cent market share, compared with 21.6 per cent for RTÉ Radio One, 12.8 per cent for RTÉ 2FM and 12.5 per cent for Today FM.

The survey covers the period January-December 2007 and compares it with the October 2006-September 2007 period. It showed that 84 per cent of people around the State listened daily to national, regional or local radio, a drop of 1 per cent since the last survey. RTÉ still produced eight of the 10 most popular programmes in the State. Today FM cemented its position in ninth and 10th place, with Ray D'Arcy retaining his 249,000 listeners since the previous survey, and Ian Dempsey gaining 3,000 more listeners.

Liveline strengthened its position as the second most popular programme in the State by picking up an extra 12,000 listeners in an eventful year for the show. Marian Finucane's Saturday programme also gained 12,000 listeners which made the show the fifth most listened-to programme. She displaced News at One which had cemented its previous gain with another 4,000 listeners, but still fell one place to sixth.

The Tubridy Show was the only RTÉ production in the top 10 to lose listeners. It lost 1,000 listeners but remained the fourth most listened-to programme in the State.

And there was good news for Morning Ireland, the State's most popular radio programme. The current affairs show gained 4,000 listeners after losing 9,000 in the previous survey.

RTÉ Radio's managing director Adrian Moynes said the figures showed that its schedule changes had paid off "in many ways".

Gerry Ryan remained the most popular presenter on 2FM but Today FM was bullish yesterday, highlighting the fact that its "listened yesterday" figure of 16 per cent was just 1 per cent behind 2FM's.

Today FM's biggest success lay in the strong gains made by Matt Cooper's The Last Word. This came after a 5.7 per cent increase in the previous survey.

There has been much jostling for position between The Last Word and RTÉ's Drivetime in recent surveys, with Drivetime coming out on top in the previous survey.

It gained 1,000 listeners this time around but Matt Cooper powered in front with 8,000 more listeners than his RTÉ competition.

When Cooper took over the evening show from Eamon Dunphy in 2003, he had 142,000 listeners, compared with 215,000 now, Today FM chief executive Willie O'Reilly pointed out.

Newstalk's drive-time programme The Right Hook gained another 1,000 listeners, giving it 94,000 listeners. Its chief executive Elaine Geraghty said the station was very happy with its steady progress since it went national "and particularly pleased with the performance of The Breakfast Show, which has an extra 11,000 listeners".

Outside Dublin, Donegal's Highland Radio saw its market share fall slightly to 62.5 per cent but it still retained the highest market share of any local station. Mid West Radio had the second-highest market share at 51.1 per cent while Shannonside/Northern Sound increased market share by 2.6 per cent to 49.6 per cent.