THE HEAD OF 2FM has said the battle for listeners continues between the station and Today FM as the latest radio listenership figures show significant gains for both broadcasters.

“It’s definitely on,” said Dan Healy, pointing towards increasing numbers at his station.

2FM’s flagship Breakfast Republic Show grew by 13,000 listeners to 167,000 since the last figures in February.

This number matches Today’s FM’s Ian Dempsey Breakfast slot, which stuck on the same listenership this time around.

“We’ve seen a surge in breakfast,” said Healy.

The 2FM boss said that the station was now “neck-in-neck” with some of the shows on Today FM.

However, sources in Today FM said the figures “weren’t comparable”, given that Breakfast Republic runs for two hours longer than its Today FM counterpart.

Healy said that the station’s main audience focus remained the 15 – 34-year-olds, and that it was committed to growing listenership at this age.

Keith McCormack CEO of Today FM said that it was a “big first quarter” for the station with its new schedule.

Both Today FM and 2FM saw big surges in audience numbers for most of their shows in this round of JNLR figures.

RTÉ Radio One continued to dominate the figures as usual, however Morning Ireland dropped 7,000 listeners to 441,000 (but still remained the nation’s most listened to programme).

This was in contrast to the figures for Today with Seán O’Rourke at the 10-12am slot, which surged by 28,000 listeners to 354,000.

Newstalk also saw some gains, with Seán Moncrieff’s afternoon programme rising by 11,000 listeners to 76,000.

However, the station also saw a dip in numbers for its Breakfast show, losing 6,000 listeners to drop to 116,000.

The figures across the main national stations:

RTÉ Radio One

• Morning Ireland dropped by 7,000 to 441,000 daily listeners
• The Ryan Tubridy Show rose by 13,000 listeners to 336,000
• Today with Seán O’Rourke was up 28,000 listeners to 354,000
• The Ronan Collins Show was up 12,000 to 229,000
• Ray D’Arcy was up 13,000 to 226,000
• Drivetime with Mary Wilson was up 3,000 to 241,000

RTÉ 2FM

• Breakfast Republic grew by 13,000 listeners to 167,000
• The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene grew 8,000 to 139,000
• Tracy Clifford gained 6,000 listeners to 119,000
• Eoghan McDermott grew by 3,000 listeners to reach 113,000

Today FM

• The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show stayed static on 167,000 listeners
• Dermot and Dave gained 12,000 listeners in their new mid-morning slot to hit 176,000 listeners
• Al Porter was up 7,000 to 122,000 listeners in the afternoon slot
• Fergal D’Arcy grew by a significant 10,000 listeners to reach 113,000
• The Last Word with Matt Cooper dropped 2,000 listeners to hit 130,000

Newstalk 

• Breakfast was down 6,000 listeners to 116,000
• Pat Kenny rose slightly by 1,000 to hit 148,000
• High Noon with George Hook was up 2,000 listeners to 97,000
• Moncrieff had a big jump of 11,000 to 76,000 listeners
• Newstalk Drive stayed static at 130,000

Read: Radio wars: RTÉ Radio One is still killing its rivals but major shows are now losing listeners

Read: ‘Battle Royale’ between Today FM and 2FM as latest listener figures are released