28 MusicWeek 25.05.12
BUSINESSANALYSISRAJARS EDITORIAL
The naysayers may not agree but Radio 2 is doing a lot right
RADIO 2’S AUDIENCE was already a colossal 13.5 million when Bob Shennan became controller three years ago, so maintaining it at that level would have been remarkable enough. But, incredibly, the latest Rajar figures reveal an additional
1 million people are now listening to the station and some individual shows are reporting record numbers. That is an astonishing feat for a network which has long been the UK’s most listened to by some distance and shows the appeal of a station more musically diverse than any other nationally has still not yet reached a peak. Within its output Chris Evans’ achievements at breakfast,
where he has attracted an even bigger following than his hugely- popular predecessor Terry Wogan, have already been extensively documented, but there has been far less attention given to his weekday colleagues. This is despite some of them clocking up record audiences. One such presenter is mid-morning man Ken Bruce who in Q1 had 7.72 million people tuning into him, around 600,000 more than Chris Moyles hosting the Radio1 breakfast show managed. Significantly for this industry, Bruce’s programme is the most musically-focused of Radio 2’s daytime line-up, even though when label executives talk about the importance of the station for their artists he does not automatically get a mention. Bruce and his fellow presenters are continuing to provide an
Such great heights: Chris Evans is 2m
listeners ahead of Radio 1’s Chris Moyles
outlet for countless acts, both new and seasoned and on majors and indies, who fail to win little or no traction among other national services. They include Ren Harvieu who won early and heavy support from the station, helping her first Island album Through The Night debut in the top five of the Official UK artist albums chart last Sunday, but the station also backs stars such as Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller, deemed now too old in appeal for Radio 1 listeners. Radio 2’s latest Rajar results – the third one in a row with an audience above 14 million and boasting its second highest reach to date – will no doubt provide yet more ammunition for some in the commercial radio sector that the station is too big, too populist and unnecessarily mirroring playlist choices with other services. But even a fairly
casual listen will
confirm its music output is distinct enough to both the
likes of Radio 1 and
commercial rivals, while its presenters would not be attracting such high audience numbers if they were not as engaging as
they are between the records. Paul Williams,
Head of Business Analysis
RADIO BY PAUL WILLIAMS
6
Music has been understandably stealing the headlines of late thanks to its UK Station of the Year win at the Sony Radio Academy
Awards and it followed that victory with a double- digit audience hike. But all this attention has somewhat
overshadowed another impressive set of Rajar results from its much bigger sister station Radio 2, which in Q1 claimed its latest audience score above 14 million with 14.56 million people tuning in. That is 2.1% higher than it managed over the previous quarter and 0.2% better than a year ago. “It’s very close to a record high,” says controller
Bob Shennan. “You are talking about an audience of over 14 and a half million and we’ve maintained an audience above 14 million over the last 18 months. This is a radio station that could never be above 14 million two years ago. It’s an excellent number.” Radio 2’s successes included breakfast host Chris
Evans’ audience back above 9 million as its 9.23 million reach put him now more than 2 million ahead of his Radio 1 opposite number Chris Moyles, while there were record reaches for weekday presenters Ken Bruce (7.72 million), Jeremy Vine (6.76 million) and Steve Wright (7.31 million) plus for Saturday shows Sounds of the 60s (3.72 million) and Dermot O’Leary (1.61 million).
Record reaches were also experienced by Lauren
Laverne, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, and Steve Lamacq at 6 Music, which overall increased its audience by 12.1% on the year and 0.8% on the quarter to a new high of 1.45 million. “It’s only a bit up [on the quarter] but it’s still a
record high and very significant year-on-year growth,” says Shennan. “I’m really thrilled for Lauren, Radcliffe and Maconie and Steve Lamacq.” Radio 1’s reach went in reverse on both a yearly
and quarterly basis, down 5.8% compared to 12 months ago and 4.5% lower than in the last three months of 2011 at 11.14 million, while its London audience suffered a far bigger battering as it dropped by 10.1% year-on-year to 1.72 million. Sister service 1 Xtra, meanwhile, having reached 1 million listeners for the first time in the closing quarter of 2011 dropped back to 916,000, 9.9% lower than the previous period but 2.7% better than a year ago. Global Radio’s Heart and Capital networks both
posted yearly growths, even though Heart is having a harder time in London. Nationally its audience expanded across the year by 0.7% to 7.48 million, while the Capital Network was up 5.0% to 7.05 million a year after Global first rolled it out. “Capital year-on-year has done exceptionally
well, particularly in places like Yorkshire and Birmingham. We’ve got to be pleased; anything above 7 million is good,” says Global Radio director of broadcasting Richard Park. “It’s grown and taken
LONDON FOCUS BERRY STEADY AS HE GOES
JOHNNY VAUGHAN had a very bumpy early ride succeeding Chis Tarrant in the Capital breakfast show hot seat, losing more than 300,000 listeners in six months when he took over in 2004. However, there seems to be
no such problems with Vaughan’s own successor Dave Berry who, with co-presenter Lisa Snowdon, saw his audience rise 3.1% year-on-year to 1.27 million people in Q1 to finish as London’s top commercial radio breakfast show by nearly half a million listeners. Berry and Snowdon’s
performance, though down 4.1% Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing
paul.williams@intentmedia.co.uk
on the quarter, helped Capital to retain its status as top London commercial station in terms of reach with 2.27 million tuning in, although Bauer’s Magic 105.4 is now ahead in share terms. “If it could ever be
embarrassingly good this is it,” says Global Radio’s director of broadcasting Richard Park about the performance of Capital’s breakfast show, which he puts down to “great presentation, great tunes, great rapport”. While its share
of London listening slipped
from 5.9% to 5.3% between quarters as Magic grew from 5.7% to 6.1%, Park is confident Capital will be number one again on this basis pretty soon. “I’m disappointed that we haven’t won both but I expect to reclaim joint leadership sometime this year,” he adds. A bigger
challenge for Global is Heart
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IT TAKES 2 TO A buoyant Radio 2 celebrates a superb set of Rajar results as
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