How the locals did in RAJAR

Whilst the attention is made to the large groups and brands, we take time to look around the UK and see who's up and who's down.

Good and bad news for Heart locals, whilst some independent stations are celebrating major increases.

In Wales, Nation Radio has peaked with 89,000 listeners, compared the frequency's first book of 31,000. Average hours is also up from 4.4 to 6.2. Group boss Jason Bryant told RadioToday.co.uk: "We are particularly pleased to see Nation achieve such strong growth, in particular in achieving a reach of 18% amongst its core 15-24 year old target audience and also to underline its position as the most upmarket station in the market."

Meanwhile, down the road, Red Dragon got its highest audience in five years. Colin Paterson, PC of Red Dragon FM says: "We’re over the moon that people are choosing to wake up and spend the day with us."

In Northern Ireland, Citybeat has increased in both hours and share, something boss Dorothy Nixon was happy about: "We would like to thank all our 128,000 weekly listeners who are clearly enjoying our personality led line-up, music variety, great chat and local news. It is evident from the latest figures that our listeners like what they hear and are consequently listening for longer enjoying what Citybeat has to offer."

Q102.9 has seen a great year-on-year increase too, from 25 per cent reach to 31, and audience share from 8.2 to 14.4 per cent.

In England, the much talked about Revolution, owned by Steve Penk, almost doubled its hours from 7.8 to 14. Is it a blip, or are the people of Oldham really loving the new formula? Penk thinks it's the latter: "The massive increase in time spent listening from an average of 7.8 to 14 hours a week shows that people are loving what they hear."

Dearne FM has had a bad book – with reach down from 30 per cent to 19 per cent year-on-year, giving the station its lowest numbers ever.

Heart across the country has seem a mixture of results. Heart Berkshire dropped listeners but increased share, Dorset's share and hours have dropped considerably but Milton Keynes and North Wales Coast have gone up in all areas.

The Coast also had a good book, with Celador Radio Broadcasting Chairman, Paul Smith saying: “We are extremely pleased. The Coast format is proving a real hit with listeners in the south who are not only tuning in but staying with us for many hours across the week. This is great news for our advertisers and everyone involved in the station.”

In Scotland, Kingdom FM is on the mend, with increases all round, but over at Bauer, Clyde 1 goes up whilst Clyde 2 goes down. Original 106 Aberdeen is still climbing steady since its launch.

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