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IT HAS BEEN a good three months for the folks at RTÉ Radio out in Montrose.

The latest JNLR (Joint National Listenership Research) listenership figures have just been released and, as is regularly the case, they make for very happy reading for RTÉ radio employees.

The quarterly release of the JNLRs is a key date in the calendar for all people involved in radio in Ireland.

RTÉ Radio One, as is by now customary, is the big winner this time around.

Joe Duffy’s Liveline in particular is a standout improver in the ratings, with an additional 4,000 listeners tuning in for the afternoon weekday phone-in show, and a very respectable 24,000 improvement seen year-on-year to 395,000.

The Ray D’Arcy Show has similarly seen an increase of 17,000 listeners year-on-year as the veteran DJ re-establishes himself on the state broadcaster following his time with Today FM.

Ireland's Top 20 Radio Programmes October 2016 Ipsos / MRBI Ipsos / MRBI / MRBI

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RTÉ’s other big winner was The Business Show with Richard Curran which increased its listenership by 11,000 on average to 321,000.

All in all RTÉ occupies 19 of the top 20 slots in Irish radio listenership this time around, Today FM’s Anton Savage Show having slipped out of that list.

The Ian Dempsey Show, also on Today FM, is now the only non-RTÉ programme to occupy a top-20 slot, despite its listenership falling by 7,000.

Other highlights of today’s figures include:

• Newstalk, which has recently launched a new schedule, is down 35,000 year-on-year to national listenership of 367,000
• RTÉ’s flagship current affairs programme Morning Ireland’s average listenership now stands at 444,000, down 5,000 on average but up 5,000 year-on-year. It remains the nation’s most-listened-to show
• 2FM is down 59,000 listeners year-on-year, one of the biggest drops seen
• Today FM is down across 13,000 in terms of listenership to 397,000
• RTÉ Sunday Sport is up 16,000 year-on-year. Listening to sports coverage on the radio will never go out of fashion it seems
• The Claire Byrne Show and weekday show Drivetime remain unchanged at 244,000 listeners
• The Ryan Tubridy Show is up 9,000 in the ratings to 316,000, while Today with Sean O’Rourke is down 1,000
• Sunday with Miriam O’Callaghan meanwhile is down 11,000 listeners year-on-year

According to Ipsos MRBI, who publish the JNLR figures every three months, 82% of all Irish adults listen to the radio every weekday – that translates as just under three million listeners.

This is actually a fall of 27,000 from the previous year.

More than half of that figure (58%) tune into a regional or local station, while 44% listen to a national station daily.

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