The JNLR radio research for the first quarter of 2017 has been released. Nationally it shows there has been an increase in listenership to 82% or 3,083,000, an increase of 101,000 on the last book and 94,000 on the previous year. It also means that the total number listening to the radio is above the three million mark for the first time since 2015. It should be noted that there has been a small increase in the estimated population in this survey and there are times when the overall percentage may actually go down in comparison to other books,

Looking at the individual programmes not it shows that RTE1 took all the berths in the top five gains table, book on book, with Marion Finucane gaining 28,000 (9%).  RTE also take all the prizes in the Year on year table with Sean O’Rourke taking the premier position with a gain of 28,000.In the falls, Countrywide took the biggest hit, book on book, with a 11,000 fall and also looking at it on a year on year basis. Tables: Gains and Falls Book on Book Gains     2017Q1 2016Q4 2016Q1 BoB   YoY Marian Finucane 11.00-13.00 RTE 1

In Cork, radio listenership stands at 83% or 355,000 people, which is up 16,000 on the last book. The big winner this book was Red FM adding 12% or 14,000 and really putting some daylight between it and 96FM. Today FM also had a solid quarter in Cork adding 6,000 or 14% to its listener base. The only station not to see an increase in listeners was C103 dropping 3,000 over the quarter. Table: Cork Reach   Latest Book on Book   Year on Year   17Q1 16Q4 +/- +/-   16Q1 +/- % Any Radio 355 83% 339

The JNLR radio research has been released and it shows that 81% of the population tune into the radio every day. While that’s a healthy reach, given the fragmentation that’s seen in other media, there is an underlying downward trend apparent over the last few books. In 2009 the reach was a particularly healthy 87% indicating that, on average, it’s dropped about a point a year over the last seven years. I think that has to be seen in perspective to radios biggest geographic market, Dublin, where the decline is much more pronounced. It too was at 87% in

Overall Dublin listenership now stands at 76% or 795,000 people every day. This is down one percentage point on the previous book and four percentage points on the previous year. It’s the sixth successive fall in the Dublin market with no sign of a letup. The graphic below gives a good visual representation of what’s been happening over the past few books. Like the national scene, the market is dominated by RTE1 with a 28% reach and 299,000 listeners every day. That’s down 2% on the previous year and up marginally on the last book. Table: Dublin Reach  

The part of the research that is most repurposed by the reporting media is the pecking order of the ‘talent’ in terms of the top 30. Note: the time slots for certain programmes have changed over the year (not book on book) and therefore, for the purposes of the Gains/Falls, they have been excluded as the comparative would be skewed. The year picture was good for RTE1 with wins for Sunday Miscellany and Tubridy. The gains were very much outweighed by the losses in numbers where they suffered badly with Saturday Sport and The Week Note: The Gains are

Radio listenership in Cork remained at 82% but fell in absolute numbers to 339,000 down 2,000 on the last book and down from 84% (-7,000) on the year. The two incumbent Cork stations dropped marginally book on book falling 3,000 each since the last survey. Red FM is still the largest station with 117,000 listeners but that’s down 16,000 in last year. 96FM in second place at 106,000 also saw a fall from the previous year of 7,000. RTE1 dropped 5% on the previous book which was the biggest fall in Cork. Stalemate 2FM managed to a 7% increase