LOTs happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
You know the drill at this stage. The latest JNLR numbers were released this week, so it’s time to see who’s jumping for joy and who’s crying in the studio.
Radio 1 has had huge scrutiny since Tubridy left. As an organisation, RTE has been crippled financially by people refusing to pay the licence fee. Despite all the controversy though, they seem to have avoided a massive listener drop.
- Morning Ireland claims a listenership of 463,000 this book which is up 23,000. That’s really good going to be fair
- The old Tubridy slot gained 13,000 listeners. It now sits at 347,000 listeners. It’s interesting to see the show do so well without a steady host. This gives RTE time to really think about what they want to do in that slot.
- A cool 331,000 tune in to Claire Byrne, that’s up a handy 8,000
- The Louise Duffy Show has gained a small 1,000 listeners, and now sits at 213,000
- News at one looks to be holding steady at 303,000. This is the same number as reported last time.
- Once again, Rte didn’t include numbers for LiveLine in their press release. wonder what the story is with that. Oh yeah, Joe lost 3,000 listeners. Honestly i wish RTE could just be clear about these small drops. It’s going to happen. It just creates extra work for people to look for it. Anyway, Joe now sits at 202,000.
- Ray Darcy now has 187,000 which is up 4,000. A small rise, but still good news.
- Drive time lost a thousand listeners and now has 219,000. They gained 6,000 last time though so no need to panic just yet.
I’d call this a win for Radio 1. Some nice jumps in the mornings, with a handful of small losses. Given the amount of controversy at the broadcaster in recent months I think they’ll be happy enough.
2FM is in the weirdest of weird places. They look to be growing at incredible speed, yet their very existence within rTE is in jeopardy. While the team in 2FM are likely more nervous about the Bakhurst plan then JNLR figures right now, hopefully they can still celebrate the fact that every show in the daytime schedule gained listeners. That’s some going.
- 2FM Breakfast with Doireann, Donncha, and Carl has 149,000 listeners tuning in each morning. That continues an incredible streak for the show which is up 11,000
- Jennifer Zamparelli has gained 3,000 and now sits at 136,000
- 113,000 tune into Tracy Clifford. That’s a decent bump of 6,000 new listeners.
- The 2 Johnnies continue to bring in new listeners. They’ve now gained another 11,000 to hit 151,000. They’ve also been entertaining on TV in recent weeks with the Late Night Lock In on RTE2. Maybe this might bring in a few more listeners to the radio show. We’ll need to wait and see.
It really doesn’t get much better than that. The future is unclear for 2FM, but they’re clearly doing something right.
Things seem to be generally okay at Today FM. They had a big departure this week which we’ll discuss later, but for now let’s look at the numbers
- 225,000 are tuning in to Ian Dempsey each morning. That’s up 4,000
- 227,000 hang around for Dave moore which is up 11,000. Seems going solo didn’t impact the slot negatively.
- Pamala Joyce has left Today FM, and unfortunately she didn’t hold her audience for the exit. She dropped a small 3,000 to 232,000 listeners.
- Ray Foley had his first big drop in a while, falling 9,000 to 164,000. Still a decent audience but not ideal.
- Matt Cooper gained 7,000 and now has 182,000
Generally it’s hard to give out here. Everything all probably evens out in the end.
Let’s just say Pat Kenny had an incredible book.
- Newstalk breakfast had a small drop of 1,000. They now sit at 144,000. That’s becoming a bit of a trend, so they’ll be keeping an eye on things. Especially with competitor Morning Ireland doing so well.
- As mentioned above, pat is having a great time. Pat gained 26,000 listeners, flying passed the 200,000 mark to land at 205,000. It really doesn’t get much better then that.
- Lunchtime live is up 5,000, offsetting the 4,000 loss from last time. They now sit at 107,000.
- Moncrieff is up a nice 7,000 to sit at 110,000.
- The Hard Shoulder dropped again but only lost 1,000. It’s 11,000 down in the past 3 books, now finding itself with 148,000 tuning in
Not perfect, but pat Kenny I’m sure offset a lot of the small drops at the station. Well done pat.
Overall
Things are holding steady. As always we don’t have time to cover every station, but check out the links below for more. Well done to everyone making great radio in the past few months.
Broadcaster Pamela Joyce is leaving Today FM. The station announced the news in a social media post this week, which Pamela then shared to her story.
“We want to wish the one and only Pamela Joyce the very best of luck as she finishes up her lunchtime show on Today FM🎙️. We’ve loved every minute of the last few years Pam, you are one in a million ✨.”
Today FM post
Pamela is reportedly heading back to the west of the country to spend more time with her family and explore other opportunities.
Very best of luck to her on her future projects. Hopefully exciting times ahead.
RTE’s new rate card for 2024has been released. There’s not a massive amount new being totally honest, But I did learn some interesting bits that I didn’t know before.
I didn’t realise that RnaG carried ads. The station actually has quite affordable ads and seems to have at least some local options. For €61.75 you can get a national ad in prime time, with an off peak ad costing €30.88. You can also get local rates at €15.44 peak and €7.60 off peak respectively.
Still no sign of ad options on RTE Gold which I find interesting. RTE is super tight for cash right now and still the online station doesn’t carry ads. In one way it’s respectable but in another way stupid. They’ve got a strong niche audience that has value to advertisers, so I don’t see why they’re leaving that money on the table.
We might see big changes here soon once we get Bakhurst’s plan, and with a new commercial director starting anything is possible.
Quick Bits
Gavin Deans has become the new RTE commercial director
Mairead Ronan filled in for Lunchtime Live on Newstalk
The Irish Media Sector will grow by €1 billion by 2027
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for more fun from the world of radio.