Radio stars breaking records as listeners tune in
PrESENTErS Chris Evans and Ken Bruce have helped BBC radio 2 to a new record audience with 15.5 million tuning in to the station.
Breakfast host Evans and Bruce are among a number of DJs on the UK’s biggest station who have seen their own audiences reach an all-time high, new figures have shown.
A boost in listeners for shows such as The Archers and Today has also pushed BBC radio 4 to a record audience. The station has reached a new high of 11.21 million, up 4.2 per cent in a year, according to industry measurement body rajar.
The BBC’s once-doomed
dig- ital-only station 6 Music has also continued to grow, with its new audience close to matching the audience for its long-established classical station radio 3.
6 Music was earmarked for closure in a cost-saving exercise but a backlash and the intervention of the BBC Trust led to it continuing on air and it has now recorded 1.96 million listeners – just 30,000 behind radio 3 which is available more widely as it is broadcast on FM.
radio 2 has seen its audience grow by 400,000 in a year.
Evans’s weekday programme now has an audience of 9.82 million which is 3.5 million ahead of radio 1 rival Nick Grimshaw, who has struggled to match the levels achieved by his predecessor Chris Moyles. Grimshaw has seen his show pile on 700,000 listeners compared to the previous quarter, although he is still down 400,000 listeners compared to this time last year.
Other radio 2 successes
in- clude mid-morning show host Bruce, who has 8.37 million listeners, while Jeremy Vine (7.30 million), Steve Wright (8.02 million) and Simon Mayo (6.14 million) have similarly seen their figures hit an all-time high.
rural soap The Archers saw its audience go up 3 per cent in a year to five million, and heavyweight news show Today, which has taken on new presenter Mishal Husain, was up 1 per cent year on year to 7.14 million. Among the station’s shows which have achieved their biggest audiences are PM on 4.11 million and The World At One on 3.7 million.
radio 1’s audience, at 10.97 million, is marginally down on the 11.09 million a year ago.