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Rte star’s today radio show gets huge ratings boost with 354,000 tuning in
SEAN O’rourke’s morning radio show was the biggest winner in the latest war of the airwaves.
JNLR figures show the today 10am to noon current affairs slot on RTE Radio 1, which he inherited from Pat Kenny in 2013, added 28,000 listeners, bringing his total to 354,000. This is the highest audience figure for this slot in 15 years, since Newstalk came on the scene. But the listenership wasn’t enough to outstrip O’rourke’s colleagues on morning ireland, with Audrey Carville and Rachel English, which lures in 441,000 a day, down 7,000 but still the most listened to show in the country. And Breakfast Republic also made big strides in the past few months, drawing level with Today FM’S Ian Dempsey. The 2fm show has spent years playing catch up to Dempsey and the latest release represents a big milestone for the programme – albeit with a show twice as long as its Today FM rival. Dan Healy, head of RTE 2fm, said: “2fm was re-imagined to appeal to a younger audience and it is very satisfying to see this age group interacting with the station in such large numbers. “The station now has six of the top 10 programmes for 15 to 34 year olds, with Breakfast Republic being the No1 show for this age group in Ireland. “Although 2FM does not target all adults, Breakfast Republic has the same number of adults tuning in [167,000] every day as the ian Dempsey Breakfast Show. “A lot of hard work has gone into 2FM over the past two years and I am very grateful to all my colleagues both on and off air in RTE. “However we all know that we are still early on in our journey.” Breakfast Republic wasn’t the only 2fm show on the up, as Nicky Byrne went from 131,000 to 139,000, Eoghan mcdermott rose from 110,000 to 113,000, and tracey Clifford increased from 113,000 to 119,000. Newstalk also had cause to celebrate, with its shows making healthy gains since the last release of JNLR rigures. Sean moncrieff’s afternoon show added 11,000 listeners, bringing his total to 76,000. Colleagues Pat Kenny and George hook also topped up their numbers with 1,000 and 2,000 respectively. Other RTE shows continued to perform strongly with Ryan tubridy up from 323,000 to 336,000 and Ronan Collins mix of early lunchtime music growing from 217,000 to 229,000. Joe Duffy’s Liveline increased its listenership 7,000 from 387,000 to 394,000, while Ray D’arcy also saw a lift, going from 213,000 to 226,000. Claire Byrne added 8,000 to 230,000 and marian finucane rose 10,000 to 382,000 on Saturdays and 12,000 on Sunday to 336,000.
The station now has six of the top 10 programmes for 15 to 34 year-olds DAN HEALY HEAD OF RTE 2FM