The latest RAJAR arrives during a sad week as Northern Ireland's Radio community mourns the passing of Eddie West.
Eddie was at Downtown in its opening week for the first 'Intro' series, and his rich distinctive voice and skilful music presentation soon lead to him becoming part of the full time team. Over the years he also worked in Dublin stations, returned to Downtown and Cool becoming Programme Controller, and then launched an Internet service, Fever 40. Eddie loved Radio, and will be greatly missed by colleagues and listeners alike.
In an era of increasing choice, with 52 stations now available on DAB and all but 6 of these being national, it is telling that for local radio broadcasters year-on-year total listening hours have increased by 8% overall. As additional options aim to capture the audience's time, this is a good result.
RAJAR* for Quarter 4, 2016 reveals that BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle has increased its hours by 9%, with the stations' in-depth coverage of all the political upheaval the likely driver. The weekly reach is down by 17,000 to 521,000.
The local stations in the Bauer Network enjoyed an increase in both reach (to 654,000) and hours by 9%, with individual performances as follows: Downtown - reach up 43,000 to 260,000; Downtown Country - reach up 14,000 to 103,000; and Cool FM - reach up 6,000 to 397,000. Across these stations, hours were respectively up 34%, down 8% and down 1%.
Q Radio outside Belfast increased reach by 17,000 to 143,000 and hours by 23%, while in the city lost 3,000 listeners (now 129,000) with hours increasing by 4%.
U105 saw reach decrease by 27,000 to 210,000 along with hours by 1%.
As ever, the figures quoted for each station relate to its own Total Survey Area and all comparisons are year-on-year.
*RAJAR is compiled by Ipsos-MORI.
More RAJAR analysis:
The national picture from Matt Deegan:
www.mattdeegan.com
Paul Easton with the London perspective:
www.pauleastonblog.co.uk
Eddie was at Downtown in its opening week for the first 'Intro' series, and his rich distinctive voice and skilful music presentation soon lead to him becoming part of the full time team. Over the years he also worked in Dublin stations, returned to Downtown and Cool becoming Programme Controller, and then launched an Internet service, Fever 40. Eddie loved Radio, and will be greatly missed by colleagues and listeners alike.
In an era of increasing choice, with 52 stations now available on DAB and all but 6 of these being national, it is telling that for local radio broadcasters year-on-year total listening hours have increased by 8% overall. As additional options aim to capture the audience's time, this is a good result.
RAJAR* for Quarter 4, 2016 reveals that BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle has increased its hours by 9%, with the stations' in-depth coverage of all the political upheaval the likely driver. The weekly reach is down by 17,000 to 521,000.
The local stations in the Bauer Network enjoyed an increase in both reach (to 654,000) and hours by 9%, with individual performances as follows: Downtown - reach up 43,000 to 260,000; Downtown Country - reach up 14,000 to 103,000; and Cool FM - reach up 6,000 to 397,000. Across these stations, hours were respectively up 34%, down 8% and down 1%.
Q Radio outside Belfast increased reach by 17,000 to 143,000 and hours by 23%, while in the city lost 3,000 listeners (now 129,000) with hours increasing by 4%.
U105 saw reach decrease by 27,000 to 210,000 along with hours by 1%.
As ever, the figures quoted for each station relate to its own Total Survey Area and all comparisons are year-on-year.
*RAJAR is compiled by Ipsos-MORI.
More RAJAR analysis:
The national picture from Matt Deegan:
www.mattdeegan.com
Paul Easton with the London perspective:
www.pauleastonblog.co.uk
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