The latest RAJAR* figures, covering the period up to June 23rd, allow the progress of Greatest Hits Radio NI to be assessed, and one suspects it doesn’t fit the intended narrative.
When this was purely a national service, 106,000 listeners in Northern Ireland tuned in each week; with the addition of local news, traffic and advertising in subsequent quarters this declined to 82,000 then 70,000, and is now sitting at 56,000.
That contrasts with the strength of stations which are fully local.
Cool FM once again leads the way, and now does so by all measures - in reach, hours and share, these being 538,000 (was 490,000 a year ago); 5,134,000 hours (were 3,987,000) and 16.2 (was 14.1).
BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle is next with 443,000 (was 439,000); 4,879,000 hours (were 4,590,000) and 15.4 (was 16.2).
Q Radio sees increases with 378,000 listeners (were 284,000); 2,425,000 hours (were 1,766,000) and a share of 7.7 (was 6.2).
Downtown improved in reach (312,000 from 292,000), hours (3,250,000 from 2,426,000) and share (10.3 from 8.6). Its Country sibling however headed in the opposite direction with 124,000 listeners (were 153,000), 957,000 hours (were 1,095,000) and a share of 3.0 (was 3.9).
U105 attracted 189,000 listeners in its original FM area (were 227,000), 1,919,000 hours (were 1,937,000) and a 9.6 share (was 11.4). In the DAB-only zone there were 30,000 listeners (previously 32,000), 118,000 hours (were 194,000) and a 1.0 share (was 1.7).
The preceding services taken together account for 59% of all radio listening hours, which is two percentage points higher than at the same time last year; and interestingly Ofcom’s just published Media Nations report notes that this figure is almost twice the UK average for local radio, confirming that here we like a lot of Local!
Each station is quoted within its own Total Survey Area.
*RAJAR is compiled by Ipsos-MORI
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