‘Newbie’ Ivan takes top slot at Newstalk

HE was late to broadcasting, but that hasn’t stopped Ivan Yates overtaking Pat Kenny as Newstalk’s most-listenedto presenter.

While Kenny saw listenership increase by 1,000 over the last year to bring him to an all-time high of 152,000, Yates’s Hard Shoulder show added 23,000 listeners to the 4pm-7pm time slot to bring his following to 153,000.

The former politician and businessman took over the slot last September, which appears to vindicate the then-controversial decision to replace presenters Chris Donoghue and Sarah McInerney in that space.

Overall, Newstalk has grown its audience by 64,000 over the past year, with a weekly reach of 771,000 listeners.

Chris Doyle, Newstalk operations director, said: ‘The Pat Kenny Show and Off The Ball have registered alltime high figures and our afternoon programmes with Ciara Kelly, Seán Moncrieff and Ivan Yates are showing very strong growth, proving that the Newstalk schedule and content is connecting with the audience.’

According to the JNLR report, there are 3.1million radio listeners in Ireland, representing 82% of all adults, which is up from 3million last year. RTÉ Radio 1 remains the dominant station, though it has experienced a mixed bag in its year-on-year listenership figures.

Morning Ireland is the most-listened-to radio show in the country, and added 2,000 listeners this year, bringing its audience to 438,000.

Liveline, the country’s secondmost-popular programme, has seen no change from last year with a total of 381,000 listeners.

The News At One also saw a substantial increase in listeners compared to the same period last year. However, weekday mainstays such as Today With Seán O’Rourke and The Ryan Tubridy Show saw dips from this time last year. Most dramatically, Marian Finucane’s Saturday show saw a drop of 52,000 over the last year to 329,000.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, head of RTÉ Radio 1 Tom McGuire said he was happy overall.