GLOBAL: Capital FM stays top in London

Capital FM is once again London’s biggest commercial radio station, now with 2.3 million weekly listeners.

Former favourite and Global stable-mate Heart is now in third place behind Magic, whilst Capital’s breakfast show remains the most listened to commercial show in London.

Across the country, Capital stations in Birmingham, East Midlands and South Wales saw a drop in listeners this quarter whilst Manchester, South Coast and Yorkshire increased. Capital Scotland kept the same amount of listeners but saw an increase in hours.

As a network, reach, share and total hours up quarter on quarter with an increase of 315,000 listeners year on year, with 7.1 million listeners now tuning in every week.

At Heart, 11 of the 14 stations are down in numbers (including London), with only Heart Solent and Heart Four Counties attracting new listeners. In the East Midlands, where Heart is only available digitally, the station has an extra 15,000 listeners this quarter. Nationally, 7.5 million listeners tune in every week.

Elsewhere at Global, LBC is almost hitting a million London listeners at 967,000. Up from 841,000 last quarter. Nick Ferrari has added over 100,000 listeners each week to his London breakfast show.

Choice FM also enjoys a rise in total audience, with 778,000 people now listening every week. In London alone the figure has dropped from 562,000 to 543,000.

Classic FM is down very slightly, but when you have 5.3 million listeners, it’s hardly noticeable. Xfm in both London and Manchester also have a small drop of listeners this quarter.

The Vodafone Big Top 40 chart show now pulls in 2.5 million listeners every week.

Ashley Tabor, Founder & Executive President said: “I’m delighted to see Capital performing so well in London and across the UK. This demonstrates the network’s growing popularity and reinforces our strategy of national brands delivered locally. Congratulations to the entire team.”

Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting at Global Radio said: “A good solid performance from our Global stations. We finish the year with our three networks enjoying growth, particularly with the amount of time listeners are spending on our channels.”