Listeners are tuning out from Radio 1 as Marian suffers biggest audience fall

RTÉ Radio 1 has seen the biggest losses across weekdays and weekends in the latest Joint National Listenership Research figures (JNLRs) as Newstalk and Today FM celebrate modest gains.

Stalwart Marian Finucane (right) has seen the biggest drop in audience since the last report in February, losing 35,000 listeners on Saturday and 38,000 on Sunday.

Newstalk and Today FM, meanwhile, have seen modest gains across the board for weekday daytime while RTÉ 2fm has seen minor losses since the last quarterly figures were published.

Despite her dramatic drop in listeners, Ms Finucane’s programmes are still the fourth and fifth mostlistened to in the country as she reaches an impressive

324,000 listeners on Saturdays and 308,000 on Sundays.

It was positive news for Newstalk and Today FM as they celebrate modest gains for weekday daytime, the largest of which is a

7,000 gain for ‘Newstalk Breakfast’, presented by Paul Williams, Shane Coleman, and

Alan Quinlan.

Also at Newstalk,

Pat Kenny increased his listenership by 5,000 to reach 148,000.

On Today FM, Ian Dempsey’s breakfast show has increased by 3,000 listeners to 163,000, although year on year he is down 4,000. Presenting duo Dermot and Dave, meanwhile, have increased their listenership by 1,000 to 162,000. Over at RTÉ’s 2fm, after several consecutive positive figures, growth appears to be slowing slightly. ‘Breakfast Republic’ is holding fairly steady at

185,000, losing just 1,000 listeners since the last quarter, while the ‘Nicky Byrne Show’ with Jenny Green is down just 2,000 to 148,000. Eoghan McDermott has gained 2,000 to reach

136,000. However, Miriam O’Callaghan on Sunday on Radio 1 has seen a drop of 11,000 to 248,000.

Ryan Tubridy took a hit, dropping from 318,000 to 305,000, with Sean O’Rourke, whose late morning programme now reaches 295,000, down

17,000 from February. It’s not all bad news for RTÉ Radio 1, however, as there are strong figures for news and current affairs, likely thanks in no small part to our series of adverse weather events in early March.

The station’s flagship morning programme, ‘Morning Ireland’, remains the biggest morning show in the country with 431,000 listeners, up 8,000 since the last book.

The ‘News at One’, which saw Claire Byrne joining Aine Lawlor to present in February, has seen an increase of 5,000 to hit

332,000.