THAT it was an improvement on the last set of listening figures will be a comfort to Scotland’s newest radio station, talk107, but the all-speech radio station for Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife has still been unable to break through the one per cent barrier, as far is its audience share is concerned.
The latest Rajar (Radio Joint Audience Research) figures has the station – which was launched on February 14 – enjoying a 0.4 per cent share of its potential audience, between the beginning of June and end of September. The previous three months saw it register 0.2 per cent.
In volume terms, that means 23,000 adults tuning in for at least five minutes per week, as opposed to the previous figure of 16,000.
While talk107 improved, quarter-on-quarter, there were some notable drops elsewhere among Scottish radio stations, with Clyde 2 falling back almost 15 per cent – though, compared to this time last year, it was a drop of far less dramatic proportions: 3.9 per cent.
River FM was also a faller, this time by 12 per cent – but its year-on-year percentage was a plus ten per cent.
With 3.4 per cent, Radio Borders was the biggest riser, quarter-on-quarter.
The Rajars were issued at 7.30, this morning.
For BBC Scotland, it was reclaiming its position – from Real Radio Scotland – as the station that reaches most listeners in Scotland.
Weekly reach rose during the quarter from 927,000 listeners (or 21.8 per cent of the population) to 939,000 – 22.1 per cent.
The number of hours the listeners tuned in for each week over the same period was also up by more than an hour, to eight hours.
Jeff Zycinski, head of radio at BBC Scotland, said the strong results were particularly pleasing as the quarter included several weeks without football – traditionally one of the biggest attractions for the audience.
He said: “This is another good performance which shows a high level of appreciation from our audience for the choice of quality of programming we deliver.
“It is heartening to note that the increases were achieved during a quarter which included just six weeks of the Scottish football season.
“Since the season kicked off we have again scored big results – peaking at over 35 per cent share on Saturday afternoons.”
He said the increase in listening figures also followed a series of presentation changes, including the Good Morning Scotland team, and the introduction of new music formats, such as Bryan Burnett’s Summer of Song.
Meanwhile, Real Radio Scotland was Scotland’s No.1 commercial radio station, with a record 736,000 adult listeners per week.
Enjoying 9.3 million hours of listening per week – an increase of almost a million on the previous quarter – listeners tuned in for an average of 12.8 hours each week with the station attracting a market share of 16.9 per cent.
Says Billy Anderson, Real Radio’s managing director: “The team has worked very hard this quarter to develop the output and these are the results we were hoping for. The figures now further strengthen Real Radio’s position in the Scottish market”.
For the full set of Rajars, click here.
