Morning Ireland the country's most popular radio show as Neil Prendeville on top in Cork
Speaking on the latest figures, RTÉ director-general Kevin Bakhurst said that the stats showed the "relevance of public service media".
Morning Ireland remains the most-listened-to radio show in the country, according to the latest data from the Joint National Listenership Report (JNLR) which collates radio listenership figures.
Some 486,000 people now tune in to the RTÉ Radio One show in the mornings, up 23,000 from the most recent release back in November 2023.
In a further boost for the national broadcaster, and both pull in 343,000 listeners, making them joint-second overall for radio shows nationally, though the former has dropped 4,000 listeners since November's book.
There were strong performances from both Today with Claire Byrne (up 10,000 book-on-book) and Liveline, who both broke the 300,000 listenership mark once more. Book-on-book refers to a direct comparison to the last survey three months ago.
Speaking on the latest figures, RTÉ director-general Kevin Bakhurst said that the stats showed the "relevance of public service media".
He added: "The loyalty of lyric listeners, alongside the gains in weekday and weekend reach and share for Radio 1, are testament to the continuing connection between audiences and these essential public services."
In the battle of the Cork stations, Neil Prendeville holds the bragging rights as the city's most-listened-to mid-morning show — with an audience of 76,000 listeners, up 2,000 book-on-book.
However, 96fm and C103 also saw figures jump year-on-year, with the former adding 15,000 listeners while the latter saw a rise of 16,000.
The rise was mirrored across Bauer Media's network, with Red FM also seeing a jump in numbers — 133,000, up 5%.
Meanwhile at Today FM, The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show continued to rise in popularity, pulling in his highest audience figures for nearly a decade at 228,000, up 3%.
Overall, Today FM has a daily listenership of 520,000 — a leap of 5,000 compared to the previous three months and 20,000 from summer of 2023.
There were successes for Newstalk too, as The Pat Kenny Show continued to be its most-listened-to programme with a rise in daily listenership to 216,000, up 11,000 from the latest book. Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman also increased their listenership to 149,000.
Bauer Media Audio's interim CEO, Chris Doyle, hailed the results as "excellent".
He said: "Huge performances from Newstalk, Today FM and Red FM contributed to this record of 2.1 million weekly listeners."
Wireless Ireland's managing director, Seán Barry, said: "We’re excited to see the continued growth in our audiences and delighted that content improvements seem to be resonating with them. This strong set of figures, aligned with our growing digital proposition, puts us in a strong position for 2024 and beyond.”
