Today FM closes in on RTÉ
There is now just a gap of 20,000 listeners between RTÉ's 5-7 Live and Today FM's The Last Word the narrowest margin yet .
Both programmes recorded significant increases last year with 5-7 Live presenter, Rachel English increasing her audience by 8,000 to 212,000, while The Last Word added on 31,000 listeners to reach a record audience of 192,000.
However, the 2002 figures for The Last Word were recorded when Eamon Dunphy hosted the show and do not take account of the performance of his replacement. Matt Cooper, who took over as presenter just last month.
In the critical battle for morning listeners, all main competitors including Radio 1's Morning Ireland, 2FM's The Full Irish and Today FM's Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show recorded significant increases in listeners.
Ian Dempsey's show has overtaken 2FM's morning show for the first time up 27,000 to 223,000 listeners. However, The Full Irish presenter, Ryan Tubridy who added 23,000 listeners to a total audience of 218,000, has only been hosting the show since last March.
Morning Ireland remains the country's most popular radio programme, attracting 512,000 listeners an increase of 27,000 on 2001.
However, Today FM emerged as the biggest winner in the annual JNLR survey which showed the independent broadcaster to be the only national station to increase both market share and audience figures last year.
The country's only national competition for RTÉ saw its number of listeners increase by 2% to 17% in 2002, while its market share also rose by 1% to 10%.
However, Today FM has again failed to record any gain in Dublin where its listenership figures still lag behind three local music stations.
Willie O'Reilly, Today FM CEO said the figures show the station is still growing. "There are now more radio stations than ever before and I am delighted Today FM is still growing.
"We are particularly pleased at the continued success of The Last Word and our Breakfast Show. It is a great result for everyone at the station."
The JNLR/MRBI survey also shows the big hitters on RTÉ have consolidated their position over the past 12 months with Radio 1, 2FM and Lyric FM maintaining their listenership share despite the launch of several new local stations.
All Radio 1's main news and current affairs programmes including Morning Ireland, The Marian Finucane Show, Today with Pat Kenny and Joe Duffy's Liveline increased daily listenership, although John Creedon's mid-day show recorded a drop in numbers.
The classical music station, Lyric FM showed no change in its 2% share of the national market, while its listenership figures were stationary at 4%.
Commenting on the results, RTÉ's director of radio, Adrian Moynes said:
"There are 48 licensed radio services in this country and all of them compete with RTÉ to some extent. We welcome that competition and in the face of it, feel it is a remarkable achievement for RTÉ to enjoy such a stable listenership."
In the competitive Dublin market, Radio 1 showed strong gains with a 2% increase in its audience as all the established independent music stations including FM104, 98FM and Lite FM recorded a drop of 1% in listenership.
In the capital 98FM has the largest market share (14%) (not counting
Radio 1) in the battle for music audiences, followed closely by FM 104 and Today FM on 12% each.
The city's most recent additions, Spin 103.8 and NewsTalk 106, which came on air last summer, only provided results for a six-month period. They recorded listenership figures of 5% and 2% respectively.
In Cork, the city's newest station, Red FM made an impressive start in its first year of operation, attracting 18% of those who listened.
However, its main rival, Cork 96FM/County Sound remains the best performer in the region with 50% of the market share well ahead of Radio 1 on 19%.
Overall, radio listenership across all national and local broadcasters remained the same with 88% of adults listening to some station.
Highland Radio remains the country's most listened to broadcaster with the Donegal station reaching 77% of its target audience an increase of 5%.
Other strong performers were Mid-West Radio, North-West Radio and Radio Kerry which all attracted over 50% of listeners in their area.
