There has been another significant fall in the number of people listening to weekend radio, according to figures released yesterday covering 2003.
The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey reports radio listenership on Saturdays has fallen from 63 per cent to 60 per cent and on Sundays from 57 per cent to 54 per cent.
The weekend figures show listenership on Saturdays down for all the national services, including RTÉ Radio One, 2 FM, Today FM and Lyric FM. In Dublin 98 FM was up 4 per cent, FM 104 was up 2 per cent, while Country 106.8 was up 1 per cent. Spin and NewsTalk were not given ratings. On Sunday all the national services were down one per cent, except Lyric FM which held its position. In Dublin the only three going up were 98 FM, FM 104 and Dublin's Country 106.8, all up 1 per cent.
While RTÉ struggled along with other stations, director of radio Mr Adrian Moynes was still upbeat. "To achieve 17 out of the top 20 programmes goes to prove that RTÉ Radio is providing a variety of programming to its listeners throughout the week and serving the range of audiences that it has to cater for." At Today FM a spokeswoman said the station was doing well considering the overall trends. "The weekend radio listenership figures, released today for the period from January to December 2003, show Today FM to be performing strongly in a volatile market."
In terms of individual programmes most either stood still or dropped slightly. Today FM's the Sunday Supplement was unchanged at 2 per cent listenership; RTÉ's the Sunday Show was down 1 per cent at 4 per cent; RTÉ's Sunday lunchtime current affairs show This Week was unchanged at 5 per cent, as was Saturday View, also on 5 per cent.