Boom is back on radio with rising audiences
JNLR number boosts for big shows on RTÉ, Newstalk and Today FM
SCANDALS at RTÉ, the Ashling Murphy murder trial, war in Gaza, and immigration troubles have helped drive up radio audiences for news and current affairs programmes.
RTÉ’s Morning Ireland remains the most popular show in the country, up 23,000 to 486,000 listeners, while Pat Kenny on Newstalk and Claire Byrne on Radio 1 have also seen big gains.
Meanwhile, listeners to Ryan Tubridy’s former 9am slot on RTÉ Radio 1 have fallen by 4,000, although it still draws the secondhighest number of listeners nationally, at 343,000.
Last month, it was announced that comedian Oliver Callan would take over the slot permanently, after filling in on rotation with other well-known names since Tubridy’s departure in June.
The latest book of JNLR figures covers the period from January to December 2023, and the rises and falls represent the change in listeners since the previous book, which ran to September 2023.
RTÉ reported gains for all its shows on Radio 1 except for Tubridy’s old slot and Ray D’Arcy’s afternoon show, which was down 1,000 listeners to 186,000.
RTÉ 2FM did not enjoy such a successful book, however, with many of the station’s weekday offerings seeing either no change or a fall in listenership over the last quarter, despite overall gains year on year.
Newstalk announced that it had hit another record-high audience share, with 480,000 listeners every day, and 838,000 people tuning in every week. A spokeswoman for RTÉ said: ‘I think there is an increasing appetite for news – we saw huge listenership figures during Covid. Then it dropped off again after the pandemic.’
News events including immigration protests, the RTÉ scandal, the Ashling Murphy trial, road accident fatalities and the war in Gaza are thought to have drawn people back.
‘It shows how much interest Irish people have in current affairs, both locally and nationally – you can really see it in the figures,’ the spokeswoman said.
On RTÉ Radio 1, Today With Claire Byrne added 10,000 listeners, with a total of 341,000, while the News At One with Bryan Dobson rose by 3,000 listeners to 306,000 listeners and Drivetime was up 2,000 to 221,000.
Liveline gained 1,000 listeners, bringing its total to 303,000, while Louise Duffy boosted her share of listeners for her morning music show by 1,000 to 214,000.
In addition, Saturday Sport and the Doc On One from 2pm to 6pm on RTÉ Radio 1 rose by 24,000 listeners to 204,000, while Sunday Sport went up by 19,000 listeners to 210,000.
The Business on Saturday mornings has 313,000 listeners, up 19,000, while Sunday With Miriam has 292,000 listeners, up 20,000.
Kevin Bakhurst, RTÉ director general, said: ‘Over two million adults tune into RTÉ’s radio services every week, and RTÉ Radio 1 remains the only station with a weekly reach of over one million people.’
But on RTÉ 2FM, there was a book-on-book drop of 3,000 listeners to 146,000 for 2FM Breakfast, presented by Doireann Garrihy, Donncha O’Callaghan and Carl Mullan.
Jennifer Zamparelli and Tracy Clifford had no change in their audience – 136,000 listeners tune in to Zamparelli and 113,000 to Clifford – while Drive It With The 2 Johnnies recorded a small drop of 1,000 listeners to bring the show to 150,000.
But 2FM boss Dan Healy was upbeat, saying: ‘Listeners have been retained in general right across the daytime schedule.’
Over at Newstalk, all the station’s prime-time shows saw audience increases, with The Pat Kenny Show leading the way. The show now has a record daily listenership of 216,000, a 25% increase in the last 12 months.
Seán Moncrieff also recorded an all-time high audience for his afternoon show, which now reaches 110,000 listeners – up 5,000 in the last three months.
Meanwhile, Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman and The Hard Shoulder with Kieran Cuddihy both saw increases in listenership, with daily audiences now standing at 149,000 (up 5,000) and 153,000 (up 6,000) respectively.
Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan also has 6,000 more listeners tuning in, bringing the show’s audience to 113,000 daily.
Patricia Monahan, Newstalk’s managing editor, said: ‘We are delighted that our content is striking a chord with listeners and that so many are spending significant time with us every day.’
On Today FM, The Last Word with Matt Cooper, a columnist with the Irish Daily Mail, is up 4,000 to 186,000.
The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show added 3,000 listeners to bring its audience to 228,000 – the highest in a decade.
Dave Moore has gained 2,000 listeners since flying solo for Today FM, following the departure of cohost Dermot Whelan. He now has 230,000 listeners, an all-time high for the 9am-12pm weekday slot.
As a whole, Today FM’s daily audience of 520,000 grew by 5,000 book on book, with a audience of close on one million weekly.