RTÉ still rules the airwaves

THE leading independent local radio stations are continuing to make ground at the expense of RTÉ, but the national broadcaster still dominates the airways.

The top 10 daily programmes are all produced by RTÉ radio with the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM the only main challenger, topping 210,000 listeners daily.

Morning Ireland, with a remarkable audience of 477,000 is followed by Marian Finucane; Gerry Ryan; Joe Duffy; Pat Kenny and News at One as the only programmes breaking the 300,000-plus listenership barrier.

According to RTÉ, the latest JNLR figures showed Radio 1 and 2FM were the nation's stations of choice.

RTÉ radio managing director Adrian Moynes said: "this is a robust set of figures for RTÉ radio. All of our peak-time programmes lead in their categories showing remarkable consistency and stability in a very competitive broadcasting space."

But the network of the top 16 independent stations claimed more people were tuning in to local radio.

"Local radio is bucking the trend while the national stations continue to lose listeners," said Independent Radio sales chief executive John O'Connor.

98FM, Spin FM, Newstalk 106 and Country had significant increases in Dublin, with East Coast Radio, Clare FM and the new Beat FM regional successes. A key finding in the report was the drop in overall radio listenership of 2%.