RTÉ's domination of daytime radio continues

RTÉ continues to dominate daytime radio, with nine out of the top 10 most listened-to shows and increases in audience for many of its main presenters, according to the latest radio listenership figures.

The top nine shows are all broadcast by RTÉ, and seven of these grew their audiences, the survey by JNLR/TNSmrbi shows.

Joe Duffy, Marian Finucane, Ryan Tubridy, Pat Kenny and Ruth Buchanan all recorded increases in listenership, as did the News at One.

However, Gerry Ryan saw his audience fall by 17,000, to 325,000, thereby more than wiping out a gain of 14,000 in the last survey. Morning Irelandlost 5,000 listeners, bringing its audience to 432,000, but it remains the most listened-to programme on Irish radio.

The biggest increase was recorded by Marian Finucane, whose Saturday morning show saw its audience grow by 14,000, to 323,000. Finucane's Sunday programme has 253,000 listeners, up 2,000 on the last survey.

The survey covers the period July 2007-June 2008 and comparisons are made with the previous survey for the period April 2007-March 2008.

Pat Kenny, whose audience had fallen in the last survey, added another 13,000 listeners, to bring his audience to 291,000.

After Morning Ireland, the most listened-to programme is Liveline, presented by Joe Duffy; this added another 5,000 listeners to bring its audience to 368,000.

The only non-RTÉ programme in the top 10 is Ray D'Arcy's morning show on Today FM; it occupies 10th spot with an audience of 254,000, up 2,000.

The survey shows a slight increase in the proportion of the population listening to radio on a daily basis; this stands at 85 per cent, up 1 per cent.

Local radio continued the slow but relentless improvement in its position, with a 0.9 per cent increase in daytime market share, to 48.8 per cent. RTÉ 1, 2FM and Today FM recorded marginal drops in market share, Newstalk held steady and the classical music station improves slightly.

Highland Radio was once again the strongest local radio station, with a 60.4 per cent market share in its catchment area. In Dublin, FM104, Dublin's 98, Q102 and Phantom all increased their market share.