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RTÉ 2FM SAYS it is looking forward to “building on gains” and “discovering new radio talent” after an increase in listenership, according to the latest JNLR figures.
There has been an exodus in talent from 2FM over recent months, with The 2 Johnnies and Jennifer Zamparelli leaving the station.
The Breakfast Show also took a big hit, with Doireann Garrihy and Donncha O’Callaghan leaving in quick succession.
But despite the turnover on 2FM Breakfast, the show has gained 6,000 listeners to reach 149,000 since the last JNLR figures were released in March.
Across the station, its weekly reach increases by 27,000 to 791,000.
The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) details listenership for radio shows across Ireland, as well as market share.
The JNLR survey is conducted among an annual sample of around 16,800 people aged 15 and over.
It uses the “one-day-aided” recall methodology, whereby the respondent recalls all their listening activity for the day prior.
The latest figures cover the second quarter of this year, from April to the end of June.
Meanwhile, Laura Fox has also increased listeners on her show which used to be fronted by Jennifer Zamparelli, a jump of 6,000 to 141,000.
Zamparelli left the station after more than a decade, saying it was “time for me to move on”.
2FM’s drive time show is also up 6,000 listeners to 157,000, despite the departure of The Two Johnnies, who left to focus on other projects.
Lottie Ryan and David O’Reilly took over the drive time show in June, and it was handed over to Beta Da Silva last month.
Tracy Clifford has also increased her audience to 128,000, up 7,000.
Dan Healy, head of RTÉ Radio Strategy and RTÉ 2FM, remarked that Laura Fox has had an “immediate positive impact”.
He added that the station is in the “middle of a process of discovering the next new radio talent for Ireland”.
Last month, the station sought expressions of interest to create a “long list” of presenters.
Healy said around “140 people are coming through 2FM over the next two weeks” and that this includes “people from all walks of life”.
“Off the back of this strong book we look forward to building on these gains and bringing a new breakfast and evening drive show for the audience over the next few months,” said Healy.
Over at RTÉ Radio 1, Morning Ireland continues to be the country’s most listened to radio programme, with 486,000 listeners.
Oliver Callan meanwhile is the third most listened to weekday programme and has gained 6,000 listeners since March to reach 336,000.
Today with Claire Byrne has also seen an increase of 3,000 to reach 344,000 listeners.
Elsewhere, Ray D’Arcy has gained 10,000 listeners to have an audience of 191,000, Liveline with Joe Duffy has increased slightly by 1,000 to reach 302,000, but it’s a mixed bag for Brendan O’Connor.
His Saturday show has 340,000 and while this is a year-on-year increase of 2,000, it’s a 12,000 drop since March.
It’s a similar outlook for his Sunday show, which though up by 23,000 year-on-year to an audience of 346,000, is down 9,000 on the audience of 355,000 seen in March.
The News at One meanwhile lost 5,000 listeners in March and has once more lost a similar number of listeners.
It’s down 6,000 since March to an audience of 295,000.
Director general Kevin Bakhurst noted that RTÉ Radio 1 is the only station with a weekly reach of over one million listeners and that RTÉ broadcasts 17 of the top 20 radio programmes.
Over on Today FM, it’s on track to also hit a weekly reach of one million, with 988,000 listeners per week.
Despite this, the Ian Dempsey Show is down 6,000 listeners since March to 210,000, Dave Moore is down 5,000 to an audience of 223,000, and Ray Foley has also seen his audience decrease by 6,000 to hit 155,000.
The Last Word with Matt Cooper is also down by 10,000 to an audience of 171,000.
Meanwhile on Newstalk, it recorded a weekly reach of 869,000.
The Pat Kenny Show is up 15,000 since March to reach 244,000, while Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman have recorded an audience of 168,000, up 11,000.
Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan is up 19,000 to 137,000, while Moncrieff is up 3,000 to 108,000.
The Hard Shoulder with Kieran Cuddihy is up 7,000 to 155,000 and while Off The Ball’s mid-week show is down 3,000 to 45,000, it’s Saturday show has an audience of 143,000 while the Sunday show has 111,000 listeners.
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“Big Names”. …. Big Names in their own minds!!!!
Does 2FM train them all to speak with the same voice / accent. It’s like nails on a blackboard.
Radio nova all the way.
@Brian Dunne: 100%
@Brian Dunne: Same playlist since it launched when it asked Metro Newspaper readers to list their favourite rock songs. They have been sticking to that rigidly. You may argue that goes for all the stations, but they inject fresh new songs every week. Radio Nova play the same 2 or 3 songs from about 10 artists
@Jack Burton: I have to agree unfortunately!
@Jack Burton: but that’s obviously what many people like…their ratings are increasing
@Brian Dunne: They do some Powerballads throwback that really hits the spot, they’re not afraid of bringing in the cheese.
@Jack Burton: I love Radio Nova but yes I’ve noticed all Summer it’s the same songs every few days. So many other great 80’s hits, plenty of B-sides not sure why they don’t branch out their playlists more.
There was no collapse in listenership when Tubridy left his radio slot either, all evidence points to high earners at RTE having little or no impact on ratings so salaries are entirely unjustified.
Of course our government doesn’t care and writes them blank cheques regardless.
Big names lol they were so big they were snapped up immediately id say.
Wouldn’t believe a word of it 2fm pure mule
@Brendan Murphy: total muck
@Brendan Murphy: man doesn’t like radio station so believes that nobody else can possibly like it, to the extent that he believes that independent listenership figures are bogus
Plenty of stations much better than that tripe
@Ian Cryan: Spot on .
It’s because those mid-morning until afternoon presenters on Today FM are insufferable….
@Noel Leech: you mean cash machine fm?
@Brian Dunne: oh yeah that’s the one, good man
I’ll stick with Radio Nova. PJ and Jim in the morning and Pat Courtenay for the drive home keep me sane in the traffic.
@Ger Whelan: My only problem with Nova is that they play the same 2 or 3 songs from each artist.
Don’t belive this at all. Pure fiction. Maybe an audit or review of methodology of data collection.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Can we have an audit or review on the data that leads you to call this fiction??
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: What a silly statement.
2FM is station of wannabes with notions. Full stop.
Just goes to show, clinging onto talent that once worked well or seemed good isn’t necessarily the only option. There’s always a replacement, there’s always a roll of the dice, it may even be from people tuning in to see what the new shows are like, a bounce so to speak.
Just AI presenting now
Who paid for this survey?….enough said!
Not the station it was years ago…
@Mark Gannon: Ah Larry and the Just a minute Quiz , Good times .
Timewarp Ireland on the interweb , no ads , no DJs , music heaven.
‘In spite of stars leaving’ . Should that not be ‘because of stars leaving’?
Lefty station
@Fintan Pox: right fool
@Joe Kelly: change the f to a t in fool!!
According to the far right on venture capitalist Elon Musks X platform, these figures are inflated by AI. lol
The question is who got greased to say RTE 2Fm has seen an increase in listenership figures
Have a spotify playlist for work over 110 hours long.Will never go back to the radio.2 songs then cringey talk by usually 2 to 4 eejits pretending to be having the craic,ads,news,ads,more talk,maybe a song,news,ads,news,ads,ads,ads,ads.
It’s a joke.One Of those things that only reveals itself to be so bad when you step away from it
Honestly who needs the same news spoken word for word every hour TEN times a day.Never again.
How do they know even if we listen @ all have they a bug in our homes or what coz nobody ever came knocking on my door or rang me up just another white wash poll that means nothing when it’s certainly non transparent
This proves that “Talent” is a liability.
Callan gained more than when Turdity was presenting! I thought he was “”De Talent!??” More proof the Management Haven’t a Clue! LOL!!!
For a national station, 2FM’s listenership is so poor to start with, anything would be an improvement.
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music they constantly play. The Smiths
So it was just the people that left the listeners couldn’t stand then!
Big echoes still rubbish
Mistake in headline. Should be “because of ” instead of “despite”!
JLNR is total nonsense. Not worth the paper it’s written on.
Why does the journal.ie allow some of the conspiracy posts to remain. We complain when Twitter and Instagram don’t take down obvious spam. Many of the postings on this topic with their anti MSM are straight out of the extreme right playbook.
What wavelength is it on.
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