Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what Happened
It’s JNLR time again, so we had a look to see who’s up and down. As usual, we’re only going to be able to cover the main stations but we’ll link to other coverage at the end.
If you want to skip the JNLR stuff, just click here or scroll down manually
Let’s start with Radio 1
- Morning Ireland now has a huge 459,000 listeners each morning which is an increase of 9,000. While this is still good news, it’s worth noting that in Decembers numbers we did see a drop from 491,000 down to 450,000. They’re not there yet, but this might be the beginning of a recovery from the pandemic losses.
- Same story with Tubridy. He’s up 7,000 listeners to 366,000, but he also suffered a big fall in the December book. Ryan went from 381,000 down to 359,000 in December, so while it’s an increase, recovery is still ongoing.
- 346,000 listeners tune in to Today with Claire Byrne on weekdays (+6,000) it seems the gains on radio 1 are quite consistent with changes of a few thousand on each show
- Poor joe can’t get a break though. He’s still losing listeners. Liveline now has 343,000 this is down 3,000 from December.This really ain’t good when you consider joes losses in the last book, down from 404,000. When you put the last 2 books together, Liveline is down a huge 61,000
In general not a bad set of numbers for radio 1, but they still have a lot of listeners to gain back after Decembers big losses.
The story is much the same at 2FM
2FM didn’t have a great time back in December but things look to be recovering
- 2FM breakfast will be happy to know they didn’t fall under 100,000. Instead they gained 8,000 listeners, taking them from 103,000 to 111,000. The show is still down from the 126,000 that it had previously, but any gain is a good gain I suppose.
- Jennifer Zamparelli has 141,000 listeners which is an extra 1,000. Another 11,000 would eliminate the losses from December so that’s reasonably possible in future books. 2FM has been advertised heavily on television recently so we’ll need to wait and see if this has much impact in the next few months.
- Tracy Clifford now has 129,000 listeners which is also an increase of 1,000. Tracy lost just 2,000 in December so she’s still in a good position if the recovery continues.
With the extensive TV advertising, and the 2 Johnnies on the way. 2FM will be interesting to watch over the next while.
Today FM continue to perform well
Basically all shows on Today FM’s weekday schedule are up, and because they also had a good run in December they’re not facing the same recovery struggle as RTÉ.
- Ian Dempsey now has a listenership of 184,000 which is an increase of 6,000 from December. He lost 1,000 back in the last book so he’s gained 5,000 over the last 2 reports.
- Dermot & Dave are also up. They’ve gained 3,000 listeners and now have 208,000 listeners
- Matt Cooper is also doing fine in drive time bringing in an extra 3,000 listeners for a total of 173,000
Most of the other shows on Today FM are changing so we’ll need to wait and see how they perform going forward.
What’s the news with Newstalk?
Basically everything’s going grand. Newstalk hasn’t had any huge gains or losses, but in general they’re still gaining a few listeners around the schedule.
- Newstalk Breakfast gained 1,000 listeners since December and now has 138,000 tuning in.
- Pat Kenny also gained 1,000 and his total is now 184,000.
- Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan has 114,000 Listeners, that’s a gain of 2,000. Why gain 1,000 when you can gain 2,000?
- Moncrieff has 77,000 Listeners, that’s also up 1,000 since December. A real trend emerging here. The show still has a bit of recovering to do though, it suffered a loss of 20,000 in December. If you take in the last 2 books, your still down 19,000
- The Hard Shoulder with Kieran Cuddihy had a nice increase of 5,000 and now has a total of 151,000 listeners
More JNLR sources
In other news
the department for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media told Radio Land this week that an Irish music quota is not being considered for Irish radio stations. This was part of a deep dive we published on Wednesday asking if there should be a quota in Ireland like those seen in Canada and France.
There are a number of legal and other factors which must be taken into account when considering the feasibility of introducing airplay quotas. The potential benefit to music production in Ireland must be balanced with the rights of broadcasters, subject to their contractual or regulatory obligations, to determine the type of content they wish to broadcast and to ensure commercial revenue particularly in the context of the current media climate. Importantly, the introduction of airplay quotas would need to be consistent with EU law. A quota for music produced in a particular Member State would be considered to restrict free movement of services by placing music produced in other Member States at a disadvantage. Given the legal challenges arising, the Government is not currently considering airplay quotas based on production location.
the department for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
This was a really interesting topic to look at and we hope to be able to do more deep dive stories like that going forward.
Read our full article on music quota’s here
Finally this week, Radiocentre Ireland has become a founding member of the World Radio Alliance. The new organisation will aim to promote radio’s marketing power, and hopefully increase revenue in the industry.
Quick Bits
Presenter Emmet Dunlea is joining 96FM to host Club96 , best of luck Emmet from us at Radio Land
2FM had a €10,000 Clock Blocker winner
96FM announced a new cash Cow competition
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.