Magic is still top London commercial station

RAJARS: Magic 105.4 has retained its position as the London commercial radio station with the biggest reach, according to latest Rajar figures.

The positions of the top three commercial stations have not changed quarter on quarter with Heart 106.2 in second place in terms of reach and 95.8 Capital Radio in third

Bauer Media-owned Magic 105.4 registered 2.05 million listeners in quarter 1, up 6.9% year-on-year. However, it did see its share of listenership decline from 6% last quarter to 5.7%.

Heart 106.2, owned by Global Radio, registered 1.97 million listeners in Q1, up 6.6% year-on-year. The station saw a big jump in share, up from 5% last quarter to 5.9%.

Capital 95.8 registered 1.86 million listeners, up 19.5% year-on-year but its share of listening dropped very slightly to 4.7%.

XFM 104.9 registered a near doubling of listeners year-on-year to 63,000 and its share stayed at 1.3%

Total Absolute (London) saw a rise in listeners quarter on quarter to 919,000 but was down 15.5% year-on-year. Its share dropped to 2.6% from 2.8% quarter on quarter. This was its second quarter reporting as Absolute, previously the station was Virgin.

BBC stations remain the biggest players in London with BBC Radio 2 registering 2.18 million listeners for Q1 and BBC Radio 4 registering 2.73 million, the latter up 16.4% year-on-year.

BBC Radio 1 chalked up 1.63 million listeners and BBC Radio 5 live in London registered 1.4 million with a slight rise year-on-year. TalkSport actually saw a drop of 4.5% year-on-year to register 684,000 listeners in the capital for Q1.