In December 2010, the total radio listenership in the United Kingdom was 46.73 million people. That 46.73m were, presumably, listening to a mix of stations which is why all programming across the BBC can boast 34.51 million listeners and yet all commercial programming can still say they achieved 33.06 million listeners in the same period:
The top 10 radio owners with the most listeners
1. BBC national radio (34.51m)
2. Global Radio (18.6m)
3. Bauer Media (12.3m)
4. BBC local/regional radio (10.0m)
5. GMG Radio (4.7m)
6. UTV Radio (3.6m)
7. TIML Radio (1.8m)
8. BBC World Service (1.3m)
9. Orion Media (1.2m)
10. Planet Rock (0.7m)
If looking for the ‘biggest’ radio stations in the UK, the RAJAR results will always list national or London stations at the top due to the sheer volume of people tuning in:
The top 10 radio stations with the most listeners
1. BBC Radio 2 (13.94m)
2. BBC Radio 1 (11.42m)
3. BBC Radio 4 (10.32m)
4. Heart (7.4m)
5. BBC Radio 5 live (7.09m)
6. Classic FM (5.72m)
7. Capital (4.0m)
8. Magic (3.8m)
9. Kiss (3.4m)
10. talkSPORT (3.09m)
However, they can often ignore smaller, local radio stations even though, in many areas, they are the station chosen more often than any other by the people who receive them. Therefore, if you want to calculate the most popular stations, taking into account not only national stations but regional too, then the ‘reach percentage’ can be a useful figure to examine:
The top 10 radio stations with the highest share of the radio-listeners in their area
1. Manx Radio (55% of people in their area tune in)
2. Moray Firth Radio (54%)
3. Radio Borders (52%)
4. Channel 103 (51%)
5. Island FM (48%)
6. Radio Pembrokeshire (46%)
7. West Sound (45%)
8. CFM Radio (40%)
9. Heart North Devon (40%)
10. Northsound One (39%)
TNR Radio Producer and Community Radio presenter, Elizabeth Herridge gave her view point on the RAJAR figures and how radio stations may respond to them:
‘I know there are some sceptics who question the validity and reliability of the RAJAR figures. However, by using the same methodology each quarter, the research will always throw up useful comparative figures, so you know if your station has improved or not. So what if the numbers seem small? If you are able to start forming a trend and see how you are received in your area against your rivals then it’s still a great benchmark… and on the flip side it also provides another criterion against which to evaluate coverage for PR stories.’
NB: The above figures are based on RAJAR results ending December 2010 and are based on listeners over the age of 15 who tuned in for at least five minutes.
Post by Penny Joyner (Marketing Executive @ TNR Communications)
