RTÉ gains listeners but Ryan slump continues

GERRY RYAN has once again seen a slump in his radio audience in the latest Joint National Listenership Research figures while his fellow RTÉ host Marian Finucane enjoyed yet another significant increase.

The JNLR figures released yesterday showed 2FM’s Ryan listenership from April 2008-March 2009 was 306,000 – 36,000 less than the corresponding period a year earlier. In February it emerged his listernership had dropped by 11,000 to 328,000 during 2008. Meanwhile, Marian Finucane has seen her Sunday show audience on RTÉ Radio 1 increase by 57,000 to 310,000 and for her Saturday show it has increased by 50,000 to 359,000.

In fact RTÉ’s prime Radio 1 and Radio 2 shows have all seen increases in their listenership apart from Gerry Ryan. Morning Ireland on Radio 1 now has 450,000 listeners, the biggest of any of the mainstream shows. RTÉ 1 generally had the top 10 shows of any radio station.

The broadcaster suffering most appears to be Today FM with Matt Cooper’s The Last Word seeing its audience drop by 28,000, Ray D’Arcy’s by 17,000 and Ian Dempsey’s by 5,000 year-on-year.

Newstalk, on the other, hand saw notable increases. In particular its Breakfast Show saw an increase in listenership from 57,000 to 72,000. George Hook’s The Right Hook also saw a big increase for the station. It rose by 6,000 to 103,000 listeners.

Managing director of RTÉ Radio Clare Duignan pointed out the Gerry Ryan Show still has more than 300,000 listeners. “That said, I know the Gerry Ryan Show team, they are fiercely ambitious for their show, and I am certain that they will be reviewing every aspect of the show to grow their audience,” she said.

Otherwise she was happy about RTÉ’s dominance.

“I’m hugely pleased for all of RTÉ Radio’s staff, radio has never been more popular and it is great that RTÉ Radio 1 is proving to be the station of choice for Ireland’s radio listeners. As well as bringing lots of good news, the latest listenership figures show there are some challenges for RTÉ Radio to address. I know that RTÉ Radio’s staff are ready to tackle those challenges head on so that RTÉ Radio’s audience continues to grow.”

Frank Cronin, chief executive of Newstalk, said: “Newstalk has taken a great step, beating all but one of its national rivals in Dublin is fantastic, growth in new listeners outside Dublin by over 15% confirms that our content is relevant nationally. The achievement is a just reward for the efforts of the presenting and production teams.’’

In Cork, 96fm saw its share of the listenership drop by 1% to 49% while its rival Red FM saw it increase by 2% to 21%.