National Classic FM has increased its audience by 303,000 new listeners in the past three months. It now has 5.7 million adults tuning in each week.
Mid-morning presenter Simon Bates is also celebrating, as he holds the position of having the most popular commercial radio programme in the UK, with 2.9 million listeners.
Smooth Classics at Six host Margherita Taylor has also added an extra 200,000 listeners, taking her total to 2.4 million, according to the latest RAJAR figures.
The station has also seen a surge in younger listeners, with the number of under-eighteens listening up by 70 per cent to 573,000 children per week.
Darren Henley, Managing Director of Classic FM, said: “The exciting increase in the number of children tuning in shows that we’re helping to grow a brand new generation of classical music listeners. This is a healthy sign for everyone in the classical music world.”
Elsewhere at Global, the network of 33 Heart stations is up by 219,000 listeners in total, thanks to a large marketing push on television and in the cinema, with Heart Northants, formerly Northants 96, adding 45,000 listeners. Galaxy has also added more listeners across the group, although Galaxy South Coast took a slight dip in reach.
Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting for Global Radio said: “These results demonstrate the strength and ongoing success of the varied offerings of the Global brands and I am particularly pleased to see the Heart roll-out is proving popular with listeners across the country. Capital's brilliant results are encouraging but equally pleasing are the performances of LBC and Classic FM with their spectacular gains.”
Ashley Tabor, Global Founder and Group CEO said: “Once again these are a great set of numbers for every single one of our brands, proving that the effort we are putting in to reinvigorating music content, strong marketing behind each brand and reconnecting listeners with live music is working in line with our brand strategy.”