Whilst Heart 106.2 gains the title of most listened to station in London, phase one of the new network is also showing a 14 per cent year on year increase.
The original Heart station in the West Midlands has also recorded its highest ever reach with 869,000 listeners, up from last quarter's 822,000.
New Heart stations in Norfolk, Cambridge and Milton Keynes have enjoyed the benefits of their launch marketing campaigns, with increases in reach and hours. Heart Norfolk has achieved over two million listening hours, an increase of 30 per cent since the last Rajar results while Heart Cambridge has increased in both reach and hours with 970,000 listening hours each week.
It's a different story at the recently re-branded [b]Galaxy[/b] station on the South Coast, with the former Power FM station dropping from 194,000 listeners to 164,000. Hours are also down from 6.3 to 5.6, and total hours have dipped below the one million mark to 918,000.
Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting for Global Radio said: “These results are an extremely strong indicator that our strategy to build a national brand delivered locally is working, and what we are doing is being appreciated by our audience. This RAJAR has proved we are on the right track!”
Ashley Tabor, Global Founder and Group CEO said: “The team has pulled off an extraordinary result. No 1 in London with Heart, No. 1 commercial breakfast show with Capital, the Heart network breaking the 7 million threshold and overall growth across the board – it’s a fantastic achievement.”