Q1 RAJAR – National Stations
Commercial radio continued to pull away from the BBC in terms of share of listening for RAJAR Q1 1998: all commercial achieved a share of 50.1% (up from 49.4% last year) while the BBC’s share stood at 47.7% (down from 48.4% last year). Overall, all national commercial stations had a listening share of 10.2% (up from 9.8%).
National Commercial Stations’ Year on Year Share Of Listening Comparisons
| Station | Q1 1997 | Q1 1998 | % Point Change |
| All Commercial | 49.4 | 50.1 | 0.7 |
| All BBC | 48.4 | 47.7 | -0.7 |
| All National Commercial | 9.8 | 10.2 | 0.4 |
| Atlantic 252 | 2.4 | 2 | -0.4 |
| BBC Radio 1 | 11 | 9.4 | -1.6 |
| BBC Radio 2 | 12.6 | 13.2 | 0.6 |
| BBC Radio 3 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 0.1 |
| BBC Radio 4 | 10.2 | 10.4 | 0.2 |
| BBC Radio 5 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 0.4 |
| Classic FM | 3.3 | 3.6 | 0.3 |
| Talk Radio | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.2 |
| Virgin AM (UK) | 2.6 | 2.9 | 0.3 |
The majority of national radio stations showed year on year increases in both weekly reach and share of listening. Atlantic 252 however saw weekly reach slip by 11.5% to 3.098 million while BBC Radio 1 fell by 5.4% to 9.721 million. Atlantic also experienced a listening share fall of 0.4% points to 2% and BBC Radio 1 went down 1.6% points to 9.4%.
National Commercial Stations’ Year on Year Weekly Reach (000s) Comparisons
| Station | Q1 1997 | Q1 1998 | % Change |
| All Commercial | 28,365 | 28,739 | 1.3 |
| All BBC | 27,255 | 27,114 | -0.5 |
| All National Commercial | 11,105 | 11,718 | 5.5 |
| Atlantic 252 | 3,501 | 3,098 | -11.5 |
| BBC Radio 1 | 10,278 | 9,721 | -5.4 |
| BBC Radio 2 | 8,795 | 8,954 | 1.8 |
| BBC Radio 3 | 2,377 | 2,614 | 10 |
| BBC Radio 4 | 7,988 | 8,161 | 2.2 |
| BBC Radio 5 | 5,531 | 5,553 | 0.4 |
| Classic FM | 4,676 | 5,034 | 7.7 |
| Talk Radio | 1,794 | 2,267 | 26.4 |
| Virgin Radio AM (UK) | 2,874 | 3,384 | 17.7 |
Talk Radio showed the biggest year on year rise in weekly reach, up 26.4% to 2.267 million while its listening share crept up by 0.2% points to 1.7%. Virgin Radio AM (UK) also put in a good performance, with a rise in weekly reach of almost 18% to 3.384 million while its listening share increased by 0.3% points to 2.9%. Classic FM did well with an increase of 7.7% in weekly reach to 5.034 million while its listening share went up 0.3% points to 3.6%.
BBC Radio 3 did well in terms of weekly reach (up 10% to 2.614 million) and BBC Radio 2 showed the largest rise in listening share among the nationals, up 0.6% points to 13.2%.
Radio revenue figures for Q1 1998 are expected to be released next week.
The Radio database can be accessed by selecting “Radio” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.