UTV Radio has recorded an all-time high audience for talkSPORT, with a weekly reach of three million, and hours up 26 per cent to 22m.
The station is also celebrating three programmes on the schedule each pulling in over one million listeners, including the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show.
Breakfast now has its highest audience ever at 1.3 million, Hawksbee and Jacobs (1pm – 4pm, weekdays) stand at over 1 million and Drive with Darren Gough and Adrian Durham stand at 1.2 million. Total number of listening hours has increased as a result to an all-time high for the station of 22.0 million.
Moz Dee, talkSPORT’s Programme Director, said, "Our strategy of creating the definitive place for sports talk, news and entertainment on the radio has clearly worked with radio listeners. I'm very proud of our programming team, who've worked hard to build credibility with great journalism and top sports interviews, whilst making the station sound fun and engaging."
UTV's local stations posted a 13 percent increase in listening hours in teh quarter – up to 10.6m. Total reach within the stations' TSAs is 22 percent.
The group says Juice FM Liverpool's doubling in listening hours in a year is down to a revamp of the presenter line up and music playlist.
Other stations, 102.4 Wish FM, The Wolf and Peak FM all enjoyed increased listening hours. And Pulse and Pulse 2 in West Yorkshire recorded a 5% quarterly increase in hours and 27% year on year growth. Radio Wave in Blackpool has increased its weekly reach to 32%, up from 28% in the previous quarter.
Calum Macaulay, Director of Local Radio for UTV Media, said, "The leap forward in hours is very encouraging and is a result of the dedication and hard work of our programming and presentation team. We are proud to be local and are constantly improving our local content and local engagement."