- Bauer Media gains almost 500,000 more listeners and takes 25.4% commercial share
- Magic 105.4 dominates London with its highest ever reach; over 2m listeners tune in every week to the station’s ‘more music, less talk’ format
- Kiss records highest ever showing in terms of listeners, reach and hours. Rickie and Melvin attract over 776,000 Breakfast listeners, the show’s biggest reach yet, up 18%YOY
- In terms of reach, the Bauer Radio Network is now number one in 22 out of 25 marketplaces across the UK, regaining the top spot in Teesside.
- Strong gains around the Big City portfolio, particularly Liverpool, Hull and across a number of our stations in Scotland
- Q radio, nominated last night for Arqiva digital station of the year 2009, gains 18% on the year and now reaches 300,000 listeners
Bauer Media today announced a solid set of RAJAR results, taking 25.4% share of all commercial listening, up 2% on the year. Every week, Bauer Media delivers over 108m hours of excellent programming and 12.4 million people tune into a Bauer Media radio station every week. Across the portfolio, impressive gains were recorded at Kiss in London, Radio Clyde, Forth and Westsound in Scotland, Radio City in Liverpool, Viking in Hull and national digital radio with strong performances at Smash Hits and Q.
In London, Magic 105.4, the ‘more music, less talk’ station has more listeners than any other commercial radio station, and is the only commercial London station attracting over 2 million listeners a week. Magic 105.4 delivered a solid 5.7% market share.
Kiss 100, London’s dance station, broke all its previous records with highest ever showing in terms of reach, audience and hours. The station continues to dominate, particularly at Breakfast, where Rickie and Melvin showed another solid gain of 54,000 listeners to 776,000, an impressive 18% year on year. Amongst its target audience Kiss now reaches 1.71 million listeners, with a 4.6% market share in London.
The Big City Network (BCN), Bauer Media’s network of local radio stations, reaches 4.55m listeners and continues to deliver great local content which is central to our strategy resulting in gains in key markets. Bauer Media regained number one positions in terms of reach at TFM on Teesside and Forth 1 in Edinburgh.
Clyde 1 Glasgow’s number one station delivered a reach of 586,000, up 11.4% YOY and taking an impressive 17.4% share. Radio Forth rose 17.1%YOY to 302,000 listeners, and Westsound recorded a rise of 14.7% YOY to 164,000 listeners. Radio City reached 486,000 Merseyside listeners, with a 12.9% market share, up 9.3% on the year. Since the launch of City Talk in 2008, all Bauer Liverpool stations have increased reach by 80,000 and 739,000 hours. Hull’s number one station, Viking FM posted an impressive 25.6%YOY increase in hours delivering a 9.8% market share, up 21% over the same quarter in 2008.
As well as delivering award-winning radio to local audiences, Bauer Media continues to lead the way in national digital radio networks with four of the top ten stations. Q radio increased hours by 24.6% delivering more than one million hours, and further increased reach by 55,000 to 300,000, up 6.4%YOY. The Hits and Smash Hits remain the number one and two most listened to digital stations, and Smash Hits increased reach to almost one million listeners, up 2.4%YOY.
Dee Ford, Group MD Radio, at Bauer Media, said: “These are solid RAJAR results. Our priority is to run a stable and commercially viable network of radio stations that continue to serve our local communities with compelling programming. Our aim is to be number one in all marketplaces we reach, and to have retaken the number one commercial station spot in Teesside is great news. I’d also like to say well done to the teams at Kiss for delivering the best results ever by all measures - reach, hours and audience - and to Magic 105.4 which has taken listenership back over two million Londoners a week – more than any other commercial radio station.”
RAJAR Data Q1 2009 - Download in PDF
Ends
Source: RAJAR / Ipsos-MORI / RSMB, period ending March 2009, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA.
Further information: Sarah Ewing at Bauer Media, sarah.ewing@bauermedia.co.uk, or Hermione or Polly at Braben on 0207 566 2990 or firstname@braben.co.uk
For radio advertising opportunities across Bauer Media's portfolio of UK radio stations please visit www.bauermedia.co.uk/radio
