While Heart 106.2 and Magic 105.4 argue over who wears London's commercial crown, there's another success story for Global Radio in the city. LBC 97.3 has achieved its best ever market share, best ever average hours and best reach in nearly two years.
A total of 642,000 Londoners now tune into the station, an increase of 56,000 listeners in the past quarter. Average hours have increased to 12.6 hours per week, the highest since the switch to FM. Breakfast presenter Nick Ferrari has recorded his highest-ever audience reach, up 13% on the last quarter to 444,000, and 25% on last year.
Across the rest of Global's stations, Birmingham's 100.7 Heart FM improved average hours and market share, while Heart 106 in the East Midlands lost reach and share.
RAJAR was not kind on the Galaxy network of stations, with losses in reach, hours and share for all four of the stations. Group changes in music policy may be cited as the reason for the universally downward, trend which adds up to nearly two million hours lost in the past three months.
[i]Please note: Any figures compared year-on-year are subject to further investigation due to the introduction of a new survey by RAJAR from June '07.[/i]