RAJAR Results Q1 2003 – Virgin Radio AM Continues To Slide

Year on year analysis of listening for national radio stations during the first quarter of 2003 reveals a rather disappointing period for Virgin Radio AM. Despite launching a £3 million advertising campaign to promote changes to its DJ line-up and music policy (see Virgin Radio Invests £3m In Biggest Ever Ad Campaign), the station saw its weekly reach decline by 15.5% year on year and its share of listening fall by 0.2% points. However, this decline could be due to the growing popularity of new digital and internet listening formats, which are attracting audiences at an increasing rate.

National sports radio station, talkSPORT, also put in a less than impressive performance in the first three months of 2003, with its weekly reach declining year on year to 2.2 million and its share of listening remaining static.

Things were more positive for BBC Radio 2, which maintained its position as the nation’s most popular radio station, with a 2.6% year on year increase in weekly reach. BBC Radio 4 also performed well and recorded a slight increase in reach and an improvement in share of listening during the first quarter of this year.

However, BBC Radio 1 continued to see its dominance of the youth audience wane and despite attempts to broaden its appeal, the station suffered a year on year decline in weekly reach and a 0.5% point drop in share of listening. BBC Radio 3 also got off to a slow start in 2003 and saw both its weekly reach and share of listeneing decline.

Emap’s rock-focused Kerrang! proved to be the most popular of the digital radio stations reporting for the first time, coming out just ahead of Smash Hits Radio with a weekly reach of 770,000. Meanwhile, speech-based oneword radio recorded a weekly reach of 50,000, indicating that its format of plays, books, reviews and comedy is gradually finding an audience.

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