LOCAL RADIO: Q1/11 roundup

Celador-owned Jack FM Bristol was the star performer in local radio around the UK, seeing a 385-percent audience increase in 12 months.

The station is now at 102,000 listeners – 17 percent of the TSA – compared with just 21,000 (4 percent) a year ago before the rebrand from Original 106.

[b]Around the groups[/b]

[b]Orion Media[/b] are celebrating audience gains for Gem 106 (up 120k year on year following the rebrand from Heart) and brmb (up 80,000 in 12 months), giving the group their highest audience reach ever.

At [b]ARI[/b] in Oxford, Glide's reach is up 300 percent in a year – from a 1 percent reach to 4 percent (now 20,000 listeners), while co-located Jack posted its highest ever reach.

At [b]Tindle[/b], Town 102 in Ipswich increased its audience by 42 percent and hours grew 87 percent year on year. Jersey and Guernsey stations Channel 103 and Island FM also grew even more, hitting reaches of 55 and 52 percent respectively.

Steve Penk's [b]96.2 The Revolution[/b] has its best share of listening since the DJ bought the station and flipped its format back to mainstream music.

And for [b]UKRD[/b], there are good yearly increases for Stray, Spirit, Spire, Wessex and Minster – all up at least 5 percentage points for reach in 12 months.

Total [b]BBC Local Radio[/b] listening is up nearly 300,000 in the last quarter, although the numbers are only up 35,000 on the year, probably because we didn't get as much snow this year as in Q1/10. The network now has 7.726m. Top performer were BBC Nottingham and Somerset, who both added 5 percentage points to their reach year on year. Radio Berkshire, this week a Sony Gold winner, dropped 6 percentage points to go from a 20 to a 14 percent reach. Other stations losing audience year on year include Oxford, Hereford/Worcester and Gloucester.

David Holdsworth, BBC Controller of English Regions said "These figures show that audiences are appreciating high quality distinctive radio that offers news, comment and features rooted in locality and topicality with presenters who care about their communities."

[b]Top performers year on year based on increase in percentage reach:
[/b]
106 JACKfm (Bristol) -up from 4 percent to 17 percent reach
Tay-FM – up from 27 percent to 35 percent reach
The Bay – up from 28 percent to 36 percent reach
97.2 Stray FM up from 27 percent to 34 percent reach
Citybeat 96.7/102.5FM – up from 21 percent to 28 percent reach
Radio Wave 96.5 FM – up from 26 percent to 33 percent reach

[b]Worst performers year on year based on decrease in percentage reach:[/b]
BBC Radio Berkshire – down from 20 percent to 14 percent reach
96.4 FM The Wave – down from 32 percent to 28 percent reach
KCFM 99.8 – down from 18 percent to 14 percent reach
Star NE North (was Durham FM)- down from 13 percent to 9 percent reach
Trax FM – down from 30 percent to 26 percent reach