IRISH AUDIENCES CONTINUE to listen to significant amounts of radio every day – tuning in for an average of 4 hours daily  - according to newly released figures.

In total, 85 per cent of Irish adults listen to radio every day, according to a survey carried out by Ipsos MRBI, on behalf of Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR). Of them, 58 per cent of them tune into a local or regional radio station and 47 per cent listen to a national station.

Listenership is slightly lower in the younger age groups, with 82 per cent of 15-34 year olds tuning in daily.

In national terms, RTÉ’s Morning Ireland was the most-listened to radio show in the country, with a listenership of 446,000. The National Broadcaster also saw gains on afternoon and weekend programmes, with shows on RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ lyric fm up one point to 4 per cent, according to the figures.

The Marian Finucane Show saw listenership rise by 30,000 on Saturday to 365,000 listeners, and by 14,000 on Sunday to 349,000, book-on-book.

Other RTÉ weekend winners, book-on-book, included Miriam Meets (up 17,000 to 272,000), The Business (up 13,000 to 326,000), Sunday Sport (up 7,000 to 155,000), and Documentary on One (up 5,000 to 34,000).

Today FM is also celebrating its performance over the past year following the release of the figures, which showed it was the most-listened to independent radio station in the country, with 879,000 tuning in each week. The station holds all of the Top 5 radio shows listened to by 20-44 year olds.

Today FM experienced more people tuning in during the week:

• 171,000 tune in to the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show (+18,000)
• 234,000 tune in to Ray D’Arcy (+6,000)
• 144,000 Ray Foley (+3,000)
• 161,000 The Last Word with Matt Cooper (+7,000)

Local radio continues to be a strong performer in the individual radio markets across the country – in many areas, particularly in the south and west, reaching more than 40 per cent of the local adult population daily.

Cork’s 96FM had listenership of 36 per cent of the local adult population on a week day last year, while Cork’s 103 FM had an average on 17 per cent and Cork’s Red FM had 19 per cent – with all station experiencing an increase of 1 per cent.

Meanwhile, in Mayo, the Shannonside area and Donegal North, more than 50 per cent of the adult population tuned in daily.  In particular, on the criterion of share of minutes listened during prime 7am to 7pm, Highland Radio, Tipp FM, Radio Kerry, MWR and Shannonside 104FM hold the majority share position in their franchise areas.

In Dublin, FM104 had daily listenership of 21 per cent, Spin 1038 had 15 per cent and Q102 and 98FM both had 12 per cent of all adults listening to regional or local radio in Co Dublin.

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