Edinburgh talk radio station, talk107, has increased its audience figures once again in the latest RAJAR results. Both hours and reach are up, climbing steadily since not such a good start in Q2, 2006. Other UTV stations including talkSPORT and Belfast's U105 have seen an increase in figures.
Market share for talk107 is up from 0.7 per cent to 1.2, and weekly adult reach increases from 34,000 to 43,000. It is the only local commercial speech station outside of London, and has been closely watched by the industry to see how commercial radio survives with a speech format.
Peter Gillespie, Station Director of talk107 is happy with the results: “This performance is tangible evidence that the people in Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians like what we do. There are more of them listening and they are listening for longer.
“We are about to embark on our first major marketing campaign since the station launch and look forward to further audience growth throughout the summer and beyond.”
Meanwhile, talkSPORT as broken all station records by grabbing its highest market share ever (2 per cent), with The Alan Brazil Breakfast show topping one million listeners for the second quarter running — a 6% increase year on year.
talkSPORT Chief Executive Scott Taunton says: “This performance is the first tangible evidence that our investment in talent, research and sports rights is working — a policy that will continue in the years ahead.”
Bill Ridley, Programme Director of talkSPORT, says: “This is a fantastic start to the year for talkSPORT and shows that despite increased competition, we are continuing to win new listeners who are turning on to talkSPORT. Not only that, but talkSPORT keeps people listening for longer than any of our rivals.
“This phenomenal success has been achieved before we signed up football legend Ian Wright for drivetime, before we begin to broadcast live and exclusive commentary of Premiership matches for the first time and before we launch our coverage of the Rugby World Cup in September and October.”
A talk radio station for Liverpool is set to launch in 2008. The name of the station is yet to be announced by owners Emap.
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