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savage

Anton Savage versus Ray D'Arcy: The figures are in but who's winning?

Anton Savage has done well in the JNLR survey.

ANTON SAVAGE HAS lost just 3,000 listeners since taking over this Today FM slot from Ray D’Arcy.

That is the finding in today’s JNLR results, which track radio listenership.

Savage took over the 9am to 12pm slot on Today FM from Ray D’Arcy, who returned to RTÉ in January, but has managed to retain most of that audience, getting 212,000 listeners a day.

D’Arcy’s own show isn’t in the JNLR report, having not been on air long enough, but the timeslot attracted 183,000 listeners.

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RTÉ still on top

New Season on RTE Radio 1 Launch Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

The state broadcaster continues to lead the way in many areas, with gains on RTÉ One for Saturday with Claire Byrne (up 14,000 to 220,000), Today with Sean O’Rourke (up 5,000 to 303,000) and Sunday with Miriam (up 2,000 to 241,000)

Morning Ireland remains the most-listened to show in the country, with 417,000 listeners, while Ronan Collins (208,000 listeners), has the most popular music show in the country.

2FM, meanwhile has closed the market share gap on Today FM. Where it trailed by 2.5% in March 2014, it is behind by just .7% now.

That comes on the back of strong performances by Rick O’Shea, Tubridy, Breakfast Republic and Nicky Byrne.

Happy Today

Overall, Today FM has grown by 27,000 listeners a week on the last survey, topping 920,000 tuning in every day.

Ian Dempsey’s breakfast show gained 7,000 to 194,000, Dermot & Dave in the afternoon is up 5,000 to 121,000 and Louise Duffy, who has taken on the late Tony Fenton’s slot, is up 2,000 to 98,000.

Now you’re (news) talkin’

Pat Kenny First Day at Newstalk Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

National talk station Newstalk saw its daily listenership figure break 400,000 for the first time ever, helped by an increase of 35,000 listeners year on year for Newstalk Breakfast, which now boasts 172,000 listeners.

George Hook’s show is up to 138,000 listeners, 4,000 fewer than Pat Kenny.

Off The Ball presented by Ger Gilroy and Joe Molloy has 49,000 listeners daily, an increase of 8,000 year on year.

We listen to the radio

shutterstock_163882400 (1) Shutterstock / BrAt82 Shutterstock / BrAt82 / BrAt82

Overall, the survey found that 84% of Irish adults listen to radio stations during the day, tuning in, on average, for almost four hours per day.

In the various regional areas throughout the country, national radio holds the majority share position in Dublin (57.6%) and the wider Dublin Commuter belt (57.1%) while local and regional radio is in the majority in the other regions throughout the country, in particular achieving its highest share position in the north west (63.0%), Cork (62.5%) and south west regions (60.0%).

This is local radio, for local people

The results also show a strong performance by local stations. The IRS+ group, which owns 15 stations including Radio Nova, Ocean FM, Highland Radion and Tipp FM, now has 19.33% of market share, making it the second-largest radio group in the country.

Who are you listening to? Let us know in the comments.

Read: Ray D’Arcy was losing listeners before he jumped ship… but his new slot doesn’t look too good either

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