RTÉ stars turn up audience share in airwaves battle

RTÉ has gained an upper hand over its main rivals in the battle of the airwaves, according to the latest Joint National Listenership Research figures.

All the State broadcaster’s main presenters, including Marian Finucane, Joe Duffy and Pat Kenny have grown their audiences over the past year, with the sole exception of 2FM’s Gerry Ryan.

The results will be welcomed by RTÉ radio bosses as advertising revenues are coming under increasing pressure due to the economic downturn.

RTÉ managing director of radio, Adrian Moynes, said the station had outperformed the competition in all prime time slots.

“This is the fifth report in a row confirming that our schedules are delivering for our audience,” said Mr Moynes.

The latest JNLR figures — which cover the period October 2007 to September 2008 — show that RTÉ totally dominates the country’s most popular radio programmes, as RTÉ 1’s Conversations with Eamon Dunphy has replaced Today FM’s Ray Darcy in the top 10 list.

Morning Ireland continues to attract the largest audience for any programme on Irish radio, with 436,000 listeners — up 10,000 compared to a year ago.

Among the star performers was Marian Finucane who added 57,000 new listeners in the past year to her Saturday show and another 58,000 for her Sunday programme.

The audience for Derek Mooney’s show grew by more than 20% to 193,000, while the country’s second most popular programme, Liveline added an extra 28,000 listeners — an 8% increase.

Veteran presenter, Ronan Collins and Drivetime with Mary Wilson also recorded double-digit growth in audiences in percentage terms.

Over on 2FM, the Breakfast Show hosted by Colm and Jim Jim attracted an extra 18,000 listeners. However, the station’s star, Gerry Ryan, suffered the only significant loss in audience size among RTÉ’s big names — down 11,000 to 316,000.

There was also good news for Newstalk 106-108FM, which saw its drive time show, The Right Hook, breaking the 100,000 listeners milestone for the first time as presenter, George Hook, recorded a 7.5% rise in his audience over the past year.

Listeners to the station’s Breakfast Show hosted by Claire Byrne and Ger Gilroy, grew by more than 35% to 65,000, although it represented a slight decrease on the previous JNLR figures for summer 2008.

In contrast, some of Today FM’s leading stars recorded slight decreases, with Ian Dempsey, Ray D’Arcy and Ray Foley all losing around 5,000 listeners each, though the station continues to close the gap on its main rival, RTÉ’s 2FM.

However, the station’s drive time show, The Last Word with Matt Cooper increased its audience by 1.5% to 207,000, although it still suffered a drop compared to its peak of 216,000 earlier this year.

Decreases in overall audiences were recorded by Today FM, Newstalk and 2FM. Overall, the JNLR figures show that 85% of adults listen to radio daily.

Despite RTÉ’s strong performance, regional and local radio stations also continue to hold more than 49% of the market.

Donegal’s Highland Radio remains the country’s most successful station in terms of per capita listenership, attracting 66% of its potential audience.

Meanwhile’s Red FM increased its market share in its battle against the leading station in Cork, 96FM/C103.