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 time once again to chat about JNLR numbers. Every 3 months we get a chance to see who’s up and down in the latest round of the radio listenership wars.
As always we can’t cover every station, but we’ll cover the main national players. Let’s get down to business.
Click here to skip the JNLR stuff
Let’s begin with Irelands biggest radio station in the form of Radio 1. They seemed to have a generally good book this time, with only small dips in parts.
- Morning Ireland had a really nice listenership jump this book and is up 23,000 to a huge 486,000. Could they cross half a million listeners? Time will tell.
- 343,000 tune into the 9AM slot which is down a small 4,000. This isn’t worth much concern for now as the slot just got a new host, and was up 13,000 in the previous book anyway.
- Claire Byrne jumped 10,000 and now sits at 341,000. There’s an opportunity to grow that with the referendums in march, but time will tell how that plays out.
- Louise Duffy gained 1,000 listeners which is the same as last time. She now has 214,000 tuning in each day.
- News at One with Bryan Dobson has 306,000 listeners, which is 3,000 up from last time.
- Joe Duffy gained 1,000 and now has 303,000 tuning in each day.
- 186,000 tune into Ray Darcy each day. That’s a 1,000 listener drop
- 221,000 listen to drive time. That’s up 2,000
Rte saw good weekend performance for Radio 1 also, so in all not a bad book. People tend to turn to Rte for big referendums and elections so maybe RTE can benefit from that, but we’ll need to wait and see.
Over on the young people’s station also known as 2FM, there were a few small drops. Everything is holding steady though so it’s nothing too concerning.
- 2FM breakfast is down 3,000 and now sits at 146,000. They had an incredible streak for a while and gained 11,000 in the last book, so this really isn’t too bad.
- Jennifer Zamparelli hasn’t had any change from last time and now sits at 136,000 listeners
- 113,000 tune into Tracy Clifford, also unchanged from last time.
- The 2 johnnies had a small dip, but are still doing great. they lost 1,000 and now have 150,000 listeners. That’s still the most listened to show on the station.
2FM had an exceptional book last time so this is standard enough. They had good weekend performance so all in all it’s a grand book.
Now it’s over to Bauer, which has become the most listened to radio group in the country thanks to its recent purchase of Iradio. Even though RTE had a great book across the board, Bauer now has a larger presence in the market.
Today FM are doing very well and are closing in on the 1 million weekly listeners mark.
- 228,000 listen to Ian Dempsey each morning. That’s up 3,000
- There’s a glitch in the system for Dave Moore’s slot. Back in November Bauer, Goss, and ourselves here at radio land all reported a figure of 227,000. The new figures from Bauer claim an audience of 230,000, and a book on book jump of 2,000. The maths are wrong somewhere, but it’s not currently clear where.
- Louise Cantillon has an audience of 140,000, that’s up 8,000
- Ray Foley is down 1,000 and now has 163,000 tuning in
- It’s up 4,000 for Matt Cooper who now has 186,000
Today fm was tough to calculate this time as they didn’t generally compare books. When they did it revealed maths errors somewhere along the line. All in all though things look healthy with that weekly reach of 1 million now looking very achievable.
It’s good news for Newstalk, with listener gains across the schedule. There’s really nothing to give out about.
- 149,000 Listeners tune into Newstalk Breakfast, which is a jump of 5,000.
- The Pat Kenny Show had another incredible boost with an extra 11,000 tuning in. He now sits at 216,000
- Lunchtime Live now has a very respectable 113,000 Listeners and is up 6,000
- Moncrieff has 115,000 listening each day and is up 5,000. There appears to be an error in the Newstalk post about these numbers, but the 115,000 seems to be correct. Don’t undersell yourselves Newstalk☺️
- More maths issues for the hard shoulder so I’m just going to use Newstalk numbers. 153,000 listeners which they say is up 6,000. They said he had 148,000 last time.
Things look good across the board for Newstalk so I’m sure they will be happy enough. They like Radio 1 have a chance to gain listeners with referendum and election coverage, so the next few books will be interesting.
Other stations
Here are a few links so you can look at other coverage. All in all it seems like the industry continues to tick along nicely.
In other news
Coimisiún na Meán have announced the details of two new rounds of the Sound And Vision funding scheme.
Both will be open rounds and will provide funding for culturally valuable broadcast content. The rounds will also be open to broadcasters and producers looking to make shows in the Irish language.
It’s unclear if the recent drop in licence fee revenue will impact these rounds, but it will likely be something we see have some influence at least. It’s a shame in many ways, as Sound and Vision has traditionally resulted in some hugely valuable pieces of public service broadcasting.
Round 53 will open on the 9th of April and close on the 30th of may. Decisions for that round are expected in August. October 15th will see the opening of round 54, with it set to close on the 28th of November. if Christmas fm is on air, your too late. Decisions for round 54 are expected in February 2025.
Best of luck to those applying, hopefully we’ll get great content out of it.
Finally for now, Joe Duffy is not leaving RTE. Everyone can calm down.
Reports in the press this week stated that Joe Duffy had not asked for a new contract. This turned into Joe might leave RTE. It was all a bit of a fuss over nothing, as joes contract isn’t up until next year.
Joe had stated last year that his most recent contract renewal might be the last negotiation he has with RTE. He did not announce his departure or anything like it.
It’s amazing how a simple comment can turn into such a storm. For now at least you can continue to enjoy Joe on LiveLine, and we’ll see what happens next year.
Quick bits
Beat 102 103 have launched a fantastic new media literacy programme
Today FM have teamed up with ESB to give away tech to schools
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.