RTÉ RADIO 1 and Today FM have performed strongly in the latest radio listenership figures, with most major shows gaining listeners in the last three months.

The latest JNLR listenership figures, measuring audiences for the first quarter of 2011, showed the majority of the daytime offerings from the two stations gaining audiences, with only one show in each schedule losing followers.

On the national broadcaster, where Radio 1 remains the most listened-to station in Ireland, there were gains for Morning Ireland, Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy, Derek Mooney and Drivetime – with the former show cementing its spot as Ireland’s most popular programme, at 456,000 listeners.

Today FM, too, enjoyed gains: Ray Foley, Tony Fenton, and Matt Cooper all picked up listeners, while Ian Dempsey’s breakfast show had no change to its audience.

Curiously, every show in the 9am timeslot on Radio 1, 2fm and Today FM shed listeners: Radio 1′s John Murray dropped 2,000, down to 330,000, while Today FM’s Ray Darcy dropped 1,000 to 219,000.

2fm’s Ryan Tubridy saw the largest drop to his audience, however, losing 14,000 listeners as his audience fell to 202,000 – well down from the 296,000 audience being pulled in by his 2fm predecessor Gerry Ryan.

2fm colleague Colm Hayes saw a similar knock-on effect, losing 16,000 to register the highest proportionate loss of listeners at just under 10 per cent, down to 145,000. Breakfast host Hector Ó hEochagáin picks up listeners, however, with his audience up by 4,000 to 137,000.

The largest numerical loss of listeners came to Marian Finucane’s Saturday show on Radio 1, which falls from 400,000 to 382,000 listeners, while the Sunday equivalent falls by 8,000 to a still-healthy 361,000.

Newstalk performed well too, with George Hook and Sean Moncrieff’s audiences on the up.

In the local stakes, FM104 became Dublin’s most listened-to local station, as the audience share of Communicorp rival 98FM collapsed. In Cork, 96FM cemented its status at the city’s most popular broadcaster.

Highland Radio remains the country’s most successful local broadcaster, topping the national charts in both reach and audience share in its North Donegal catchment area.