Splitting Yorkshire Coast Radio off from Minster FM's RAJAR survey and letting it go-alone has proved a good PR move for TLRC. There was perhaps some overlap in the TSAs, as a crass combination of the separate figures shows an increase of 7,000 listeners and just short of 200,000 extra hours. Fire 107.6 was TLRC's big winner this quarter, whilst Salisbury's Spire FM posted its best reach (000s) in three years.
Total listening hours for the group were 7.7 million, compared with 7.6 million in Q1/07. Reach for the group is up 13,000 on the quarter, to 920,000… and year-on-year The Local Radio Company have added 5% to their listener numbers.
Commenting on the figures, Alistair Mackenzie, Finance Director of TLRC, said: "These are good figures. We have again increased our total number of listeners and we are delighted to have improved our total listening hours during this period."
Around the group the highlights also included East Lancashire station 2BR's best reach since Q1/06, along with an increase in hours and share. Huddersfield's Home FM added 3,000 listeners and increased its hours, and Sun FM saw a good rise in total hours quarter-on-quarter.
Darlington's Alpha lost a thousand listeners, but a bigger TSA means the figures this quarter show the worst %age reach in a long time. Silk in Macclesfield lost hours and share as well as reach, whilst Stray FM in Harrogate continued its decline at the same trend as over the past year. Hours are up though for Stray, as is market share.
A good RAJAR for Arrow FM in Hastings with increases across the board this quarter. Bath FM also did well this time, but is still not back at the level it was before TLRC bought the station. Dune in Southport is back down to the levels it was at in Q4/06 after an unusually good RAJAR in Q1/07. Their total hours are back at 183,000 after posting 249k last time out.
Isle of Wight Radio is still at the magic 40% reach figure and saw steady rises in reach, hours and share. Across the water The Quay in Portsmouth benefited from the massive increase in their TSA with an extra 6,000 listeners – and 87,000 extra on their total hours. Eastbourne's Sovereign Radio, however, lost hours as well as reach and market share.
Relatively new station Ivel FM in Yeovil maintained its impressive 25% reach despite losing 2,000 listeners – and at the same time increased its share to the best it's been in over a year.
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