RTÉ Radio 1 the most listened to station, JNLR figures reveal

Claire Byrne is set to replace Pat Kenny on his Newstalk morning show in the new year. File Picture: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie

Claire Byrne signed off on RTÉ with the same number of listeners, compared to the previous quarter, while Kieran Cuddihy lost some on his Newstalk show as the pair prepare to swap stations, according to figures published on Thursday.

Ray D’Arcy, meanwhile, also saw his listenership marginally fall in the last quarter prior to his departure from RTÉ.

The latest JNLR figures for listenership on Ireland’s airwaves suggest that 3.48m people in Ireland tune into the radio every weekday, with RTÉ Radio 1 the most listened to station with 1.3m weekly.

With Mr Cuddihy set to take the reins of Liveline next week, following Joe Duffy’s departure, the latest figures show that the programme shed 20,000 listeners when compared to the last quarter.

Meanwhile,  The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk also saw the number of listeners fall when compared to the previous quarter. The Bauer Media-owned station has yet to announce a new host for The Hard Shoulder.

Morning Ireland, whose new presenter lineup has yet to be announced amidst the RTÉ shakeup, remains the most listened to radio programme in the country with 471,000 listeners a day. This was a marginal rise of 2,000 on the previous survey.

RTÉ’s News at One, meanwhile, has shed listeners while Drivetime saw a rise.

Weekend statistics

The beleaguered national broadcaster, which is to shut its in-house documentary unit, has seen a significant rise in weekend listenership.

Brendan O’Connor added 77,000 listeners to his Saturday show and 88,000 on Sunday year-on-year for 419,000 listeners and 427,000 listeners respectively.

Sunday Miscellany, Sunday with Miriam, and This Week have also recorded significant rises year-on-year according to the figures.

There was good news at weekends for Newstalk too, with The Anton Savage Show adding 7,000 listeners to his Saturday and Sunday shows.

And, while Matt Cooper made gains on Today FM, Pat Kenny lost listeners on his Newstalk show. Ms Byrne is set to replace Mr Kenny on his morning show in the new year.

In Cork, over half of radio listeners are tuning into Red FM, 96FM, and C103. RedFM is having the largest share at 20.5%, while over one third of adults in Ireland tune into local radio each day.