Today FM gains as RTÉ’s big hitters lose listeners

A number of RTÉ radio’s biggest shows have once again experienced big losses in listenership figures with Today FM reaping the benefits.

While Radio One and, in particular, 2FM did experience a number of gains compared to the last quarter, year-on-year there were declines for Ryan Tubridy (down 11,000 to 175,000), Miriam O’Callaghan’s Miriam Meets (down 8,000 to 271,000), Morning Ireland (down 16,000 to 444,000) and Marian Finucane’s Sunday Show (down 14,000 to 341,000).

However, on a brighter note, 2FM saw gains for a number of its other big names including Colm Hayes (up 8,000 to 141,000), Larry Gogan (up 11,000 to 89,000) Rick O’Shea (up 9,000 to 123,000) and Will Leahy (up 15,000 to 119,000).

And in Radio One Joe Duffy’s Liveline increase of 28,000 to 428,000 and News at One’s 15,000 increase to 357,000 were both positives.

And while her Sunday Show may be waning, Marian Finucane’s Saturday how gained 10,000 more listeners. The station also pointed out that its Arena arts programme saw a 42% gain.

Today FM saw year-on-year gains for most of its main shows with Ray D’Arcy in particular seeing his listenership rise by 43,000 to 255,000 while Ian Dempsey’s breakfast show saw a 37,000 increase to 189,000.

Among the station’s other big winners were the Last Word with Matt Cooper which rose by 19,000 to 174,000 and Savage Sunday with Anton Savage which rose by 30,000 to 122,000.

Newstalk also had a number of successes in it year-on-year figures.

Its Breakfast Show increased listenership by 23,000 to 133,000, Damien Kiberd had a 4,000 increase to 64,000 and Sean Moncrief’s show attracted 93,000 listeners, up by 4,000.

However, Tom Dunne suffered a 5,000 loss to 49,000.

Despite the losses, an RTÉ spokesman said Radio 1 had made significant year-on-year gains across the afternoons.

Today FM said it had attracted 106,000 more listeners in the last 12 months.