IT WAS BILLED as a battle between two sheriffs in a one-horse-town.
Pat Kenny versus Sean O’Rourke in a ‘this town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ scenario.
Instead, both Kenny and O’Rourke have added listeners to their lunchtime shows, according to the latest JNLR figures. The quarterly survey shows that Kenny added 18,000 listeners to his Newstalk programme.
That puts him some way off his old slot’s 327,000 listeners, which is 6,000 ahead of where it was last year, when Kenny still hosted the show.
Overall, RTÉ Radio One was the most listened to station in the country, with Morning Ireland the country’s most listened to show, climbing by a thousand to 449,000 listeners.
There were also climbs for Marian Finucane, The John Murray Show and The Business.
The managing director of RTÉ Radio Jim Jennings said the results were “encouraging”.
“For Sean O’Rourke to increase his listenership year on year is a remarkable achievement given the amount of changes in the radio market this year. 2fm also had a very good book with an increase in its audience and with a new schedule about to launch we feel that there are exciting times ahead for the station.
“RTÉ lyric fm also had a great book with the station increasing both its daily reach and market share and Marty Whelan increasing his audience to over 40,000.”
Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy now has 230,000 listeners, with Ryan Tubridy static at 152,000. Hector, who was taken off 2FM before Christmas had gained 12,000 listeners.
Newstalk’s Breakfast show, Moncrieff and Off the Ball all managed to increase listenership.
Their CEO Gerard Whelan said that they were “delighted” with the results.
“They give a clear indication that Newstalk continues to generate great momentum across the country. We are seeing particularly strong performances from both Newstalk Breakfast, with Ivan and Chris, and The Pat Kenny Show.”
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