Think back to April, May and June… what events were happening in your life?
Well, the chances are, the soundtrack to those events was Radio. It’s the medium that touches people like no other and is a vital part of our everyday lives.
The latest audience research from RAJAR shows that Radio continues to break records with over 50 million people listening each week.
For the second quarter in a row in 2024, more people are listening to Commercial Radio in the UK than ever before with its highest ever weekly reach of over 40 million (40,457) – that’s 8 million more than the BBC. Commercial Radio’s share of listening has also grown year-on-year and is now at 55%, 12.4% higher than the public service broadcaster.
When you delve down into the detail, there have been some stunning individual radio brand and station performances. The radio experts team has been doing a deep dive to bring you the highlights.
National Stations and Networks
Global remains the number one commercial radio company in the UK, in terms of reach, with 28.6 million listeners and a new record share of 26.5%.
The Heart Brand continues to be a consistent performer delivering around 400,000 new listeners. Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden remains the biggest commercial radio breakfast show in the UK with 4.2 million weekly listeners.
The Capital Brand is on-song and stronger than ever, now reaching over 9.1 million listeners each week in Q2 2024. The main Capital Network, increased its total reach by 12% from 6,243,000 to 6,992,000 and total hours by 13.6% (from 29,411,000 to 33,404,000) compared to Q1 2024.
The Absolute Radio Network has had an absolutely fabulous Q2, increasing its weekly reach by 77,000. This Bauer brand is now reaching nearly 5.6 million listeners each week, up 1.4% from Q1 2024. Average listening hours per week are also up, resulting in a 5% increase in total hours, quarter on quarter. Absolute Radio is still the highest reaching station in the Absolute network with over 2 million listeners.
Hits Radio has hit the ground running with an excellent Q2, achieving 5% more listeners compared to the previous quarter, and now has a weekly reach of nearly 7.1 million. This was driven by both organic growth and the addition of new stations to the network, such as Hits Pride, which has amassed an audience of over 300,000 listeners.
After an excellent set of Q1 results, Greatest Hits Radio had a steadier set of numbers this time round. The overall network saw an increase in total listening hours from 65.2 to 65.5 million and average weekly listening hours from 8.4 to 8.6. Ken Bruce now reaches a record 4 million listeners and Rossie at Breakfast now reaches a record 3 million a week.
It’s been a solid gold survey this quarter for the Gold brand. As a network, its reach is up by 1.3% quarter on quarter to 1,834,000.
Meanwhile, Radio X is growing in both reach and hours. The brand now reaches 2,323,000 people each week, up 4.8% quarter on quarter and 10.8% year on year, whereas total listening hours have risen 6% since Q1.
The Smooth Brand is sailing smoothly – increasing their reach by 10.5% from 6.5 million to 7.2 million. Total hours have also increased, up 13% compared to the previous quarter.
Despite Graham Norton leaving the Weekend Breakfast show in February, Virgin Radio has managed to weather the storm and increased its reach by 14% to 1.6 million weekly listeners. The full network is also up 14% in weekly reach to 2.2 million.
News and Talk stations
News UK Speech Network has also seen good results this quarter with stations talkRadio, talkSport and Times Radio. The Network has maintained its reach at 4.7 million listeners and total hours are up 3% quarter on quarter.
LBC Brand (UK) has added 227,000 listeners in the past year, now reaching more than 3.3 million people each week.
GB News is reporting a major story too, with reach up 14% to 518,000. This means it now has more listeners than Times Radio.
Digital Listening and Digital Only Stations
For all radio, smart speaker listening continues to grow and now accounts for 17% of total listening, an 18% increase year-on-year. Digital listening share continues to be strong too with a 74% share overall for all radio. Smart speaker listening on Commercial Radio continues to drive this growth, now at 20.8%, up from 17.4% compared to the same period last year.
Most of the growth in the Absolute Network has come from the decade’s stations, 60s, 70s, 80s, 00s and 10s have all reported higher reach and total hours, with only 90s bucking the trend with a slight decrease. Absolute 80s is always the strongest of the decades, it has marginally increased reach to 1,587,000, up 2% from 1,556,000, but people are listening for much longer and total listening hours are up 23% since the previous quarter.
Kisstory is the star of the Kiss brand this quarter, with a 14% increase in weekly reach to 2.4 million, and a 10% increase in total hours since Q1.
Heart Tens (70’s, 80’s, 00’s) and Heart Dance have had a strong quarter accumulatively, between them they have added 1.5 million listening hours per week compared to the previous quarter, an increase of 7%.
After levelling off growth in Q1, relative newbie Radio X Classic Rock has managed to continue to rock it’s socks off – up 24.1% in reach, quarter on quarter. This station now has 299,000 people tuning in each week.
Smooth Chill is in the zone, increasing its weekly reach by a massive 32% from 402,000 to 531,000 weekly listeners and the station also managed to increase total listening hours by 22%.
Smooth Country is shouting “ye-ha!” as it has increased its reach by 19% from 358,000 to 426,000 weekly listeners. And Smooth Relax increased its reach by 42% from 348,000 to 494,000 and increased total listening hours by 35% since last quarter.
Magic at the Musicals continued to hit the high notes in Q2. Its total hours have increased by an impressive 38.3%, growing from 857,000 to 1,185,000. Its weekly reach has also increased by 29.5% from 200,000 to 259,000 quarter on quarter.
Meanwhile, Magic Soul has just the right vibe – its weekly reach growing by a 17.8%, up by 91,000 to 603,000 compared to the last quarter.
London
Overall, it’s been a strong quarter for London stations, but there’s no real change in the battle of the brands.
Heart remains number 1 in the city for reach with 2 million listeners, but not far behind is Capital with a 23% rise in reach, up from 1.486 million to 1.963 million weekly listeners. This increase has probably been prompted by the arrival of Jordan North on Capital Breakfast who replaced Roman Kemp.
LBC London remains in first place for total listening hours, 6.2 million hours ahead of Capital London.
The top 5 London stations are as follows:
Weekly Reach (000’s)
| Heart London | 2,084 |
| Capital London | 1,963 |
| LBC London | 1,462 |
| Magic London | 1,268 |
| Smooth London | 1,192 |
Total Listening Hours (000’s)
| LBC London | 15,421 |
| Heart London | 9.210 |
| Capital (London) | 8,472 |
| Magic London | 8,123 |
| GHR (London) | 5,642 |
Locally
In the regions, there has been some incredible increases in listening across the board.
The regional Capital stations in particular have reported a phenomenal set of results, of these, Capital South Coast had the highest increase in reach from 121,000 to 156,000 (up 28.9%) with hours also up 28.5% from 585,000 to 752,000. Capital Brighton had the highest increase in total hours (up an incredible 69.7%) from 76,000 to 129,000 with reach also up by 22.7% from 22,000 to 27,000.
Of the 59 local Greatest Hits Radio stations, many saw a positive set of results. The star of the show was GHR Black Country & Shropshire which saw a 59.8% lift in reach to 163,000, and 57.9% increase in total hours quarter on quarter. GHR Cornwall had very positive results with an increase in reach of 41.2% (68,000 to 98,000) and total hours increase of 37.8% (563,000 to 776,000).
Among the 25 stations in the Hits Network, the majority reported quarter on quarter growth. Standout performers include Hits Bristol, which was up 54% in reach to 83,000, Hits South Wales, which was up 74% in reach to 148,000, and Hits South Coast, which experienced an impressive 76% increase in weekly reach since last quarter to 51,000.
Local heritage stations (which were recently rebranded as Hits stations) have also seen growth. Hits North East Teesside, formerly TFM, experienced 6% quarter on quarter growth in reach to 146,000. Hits West Yorkshire, previously Pulse 1, saw a 32% increase in listening hours since Q1. These results show that, despite local opposition to rebranding these heritage stations, it’s been a successful formula for Bauer.
Gold Cambridgeshire’s reach has shot up an impressive 10.3% this quarter to 32,000 and its total hours have grown by 22.5%. Staying with the Gold brand, listeners are tuning in to Gold London for longer, with a 45% increase in total hours this quarter compared to Q1.
Summary
It’s been another record-breaking set of results for all radio with Commercial Radio performing better than ever.
The love for Commercial Radio in the UK is shining through and is a testament to the investment in dedication, professionalism and talent by all of the UK radio groups.
Every week, agencies and their advertisers have access to over 40 million people who love and trust their radio station – a perfect place for delivering brand and direct response messages.
Right now, there’s never been a better time for advertisers to use radio.
For a quick overview, take a look at our infographic and if you’d like to know more about the Q2 2024 RAJAR or any other aspects of radio and digital audio advertising, please get in touch.
