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Ryan Tubridy (file photo) Alamy Stock Photo
RTÉ

Jump in listeners for Ryan Tubridy's old radio slot, latest JNLR figures show

RTÉ has been plunged into crisis in recent months over an ongoing pay scandal.

MORE LISTENERS ARE tuning in to the Nine O’Clock Show on RTÉ Radio 1 in recent months, according to figures published by Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) with polling company Ipsos/MRBI.

The morning programme has 347,000 listeners each weekday, up by 13,000 since the last JNLR quarterly figures were released in August.

Tubridy had been losing listeners before he left the station earlier this year.

Oliver Callan and a number of other presenters have hosted the show since Tubridy’s departure.

RTÉ was plunged into crisis in June when the State broadcaster revealed it under-declared fees to Tubridy, its then-highest-paid staff member. The scandal widened as a series of other financial and governance issues emerged.

Morning Ireland remains Ireland’s most listened to radio programme, with 463,000 listeners, up by 23,000 since August.

Overall, RTÉ’s radio services reach 1,995,000 million listeners – or 48% of the population over the age of 15 – every week.

The State broadcaster produced 16 of the top 20 radio programmes in Ireland over the last year (October 2022 to September 2023).

The other four shows in the top 20 are Dermot and Dave, the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show and Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis (all Today FM), and the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.

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Reacting to the figures, Kevin Bakhurst, RTÉ Director-General, said: “Without a doubt this has been an extraordinarily challenging period for RTÉ.

“It is with gratitude then that I thank the listeners to RTÉ’s radio services for sticking with RTÉ, and with pleasure welcome the 16,000 additional listeners to Radio 1, the 49,000 additional listeners to 2FM, and the 7,000 additional listeners to RTÉ Lyric FM (year on year).”