Kiss overtakes Capital as Magic retains top radio spot
Kiss, the Bauer Radio-owned dance station, has overtaken 95.8 Capital for the first time, attracting 1.58 million weekly listeners in London compared to Capital’s 1.56 million. The latest radio audience figures, published today (May 1), also saw the BBC take its biggest ever lead over commercial radio.
The Rajar figures for the first quarter see Kiss move into third place in the capital behind Heart 106.2, owned by Global Radio, and fellow Bauer-owned station, Magic, which retained the top spot.
Despite slipping into fourth place, Capital grew its audience from 1.52 million in the previous quarter but is down from 1.65 million from the same period last year. Meanwhile, Kiss was up from 1.43 million in the previous quarter and from 1.35 million – more than 200,000 – from last year.
Magic and Heart continued to slug it out for the top spot with Magic seeing a slight fall from 1.97 million listeners last quarter to 1.92 for this quarter. While Heart saw a rise from 1.85 million up from 1.84 million last quarter and from 1.7 million on the previous year. The stations are now level on share taking 5.8% of the London market each.
The Heart breakfast show, presented by Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott, retained the number one spot in their slot with 893,000 listeners despite Capital reuniting Denise van Outen with Johnny Vaughan. The pair increased their audience by 1,000 to 943,000 but the show runs for a longer 6am to 10am slot.
Elsewhere in London, XFM 104.9 has lost 40% of its audience as its weekly reach dipped from 630,000 in the first quarter of last year to 379,000 this quarter. The GCap-owned “alternative” station also saw its share slip to 0.9% from 1.8% in the first three months of last year. †
Meanwhile, the BBC has extended its lead in audience share over commercial radio. The BBC now takes a 56.8% share of audience against a 41.1% share for the commercial sector. The BBC saw gains for both the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on Radio 1 – which now has 7.72 million listeners up from 7.06 million a year ago – and Wake Up to Wogan on Radio 2, which now has 8.1 million listeners. It is the veteran broadcaster’s highest ever audience figure.
