Drivetime radio shows fare worst as rising joblessness reduces commuter numbers

RISING UNEMPLOYMENT is taking its toll on radio listenership, with falls in the audience for many drivetime shows, according to the latest figures.

Morning Irelandand Drivetimeon RTÉ, and The Last Wordon Today FM, all lost listeners in line with a fall in the number of commuting motorists, the JNLR/Ipsos MRBI figures for the 12-month period to December 2009 show.

The Right Hook, presented by George Hook on Newstalk FM, bucked the trend with a 9,000 increase in audience on the previous set of figures.

The data, released yesterday, also shows a big increase in weekend listening. Ruth Buchanan's round-up of the week's radio highlights on Playbackwon an extra 14,000 listeners, and The Business, presented by John Murray, has broken into the top 10 programmes with a 14,000 increase to 310,000.

Overall, the figures saw a further consolidation of RTÉ Radio 1’s position as the most listened to station in the country, and it once again accounted for the top 10 most popular shows and 18 out of the top 20. However, the news was better for some of the station’s stars than others, with Ryan Tubridy recording an 11,000 increase in listeners on top of the 13,000 he achieved in the last set of figures.

Pat Kenny was up 7,000, having grown his audience by 6,000 last time out, and Marian Finucane continued her seemingly inexorable rise in popularity by adding another 4,000 listeners to her Saturday and Sunday shows.

In contrast, the News at One, presented by Sean O'Rourke, was down 2,000 listeners, while Morning Irelandlost 3,000. Morning Irelandremains the nation's most popular programme with 464,000 listeners, ahead of a virtually unchanged Livelinepresented by Joe Duffy, with an audience of 424,000.

At 2FM, Gerry Ryan almost fell out of the top 10 in spite of adding 2,000 listeners.

Clare Duignan, managing director of RTÉ Radio, said 2FM was fighting to regain listeners and said early indications were that changes to evening and arts scheduling were yielding results.

The biggest loser in the current figures is Today FM, where The Last Wordpresented by Matt Cooper dropped 13,000 listeners on top of an 11,000 fall in the last figures. Drivetimecurrently has 251,000 listeners, while The Last Wordhas 177,000. A few years ago The Last Wordhad more listeners than Drivetimeon RTÉ Radio 1; today the gap has been reversed to the tune of 74,000.

Today FM chief executive Willie O’Reilly admitted the fall in commuting had hurt the station in some areas, but added that he expected to see the trend reversed as the economy picked up.

The gap between The Last Wordand The Right Hookis now down to 56,000, as George Hook's programme continued its steady progress; his audience increased by 9,000 to 121,000.

Also down is Ray D’Arcy, whose morning show on Today FM lost 10,000 listeners.

The survey shows 87 per cent of adults listen daily to radio, the same as in the last survey. Once again, the most listened-to local radio station was Highland Radio in Co Donegal, with a market share of 65.5 per cent.

RTÉ Radio 1’s share of the market stands at 23.4 per cent, compared to 10.1 for 2FM and 9.9 per cent for Today FM.

The figures cover the 12 months of 2009, and comparisons are with the previous book covering October 2008 and September 2009.