RAJAR: Capital FM still London’s biggest

Global Radio’s 95.8 Capital FM is the biggest London radio station according to the latest listening figures, with 2.269m tuning in each week.

Only BBC Radio 4 has more listeners in the capital city, although Magic 105.4’s market share is bigger than Capital FM’s.

Capital’s audience in London has grown 4% compared with this time a year ago, while at breakfast Dave and Lisa (1.265m weekly) are still way ahead of Magic’s Neil Fox (793k), Heart’s Jamie and Harriet (759k) and Kiss FM’s Sony Gold winning Ricki, Melvin & Charlie (750k). Capital also says it has more listeners than Chris Moyles in London at breakfast.

95.8 Capital FM Breakfast show co-host Dave Berry said; “Lisa and I have a mutual understanding with our listeners – we get up, exchange stories, listen to great music and have a laugh – it’s a pleasure to be part of that every morning.”

Sister station Choice FM had a great year, with its audience size increasing 36.4% – that’s a rise of 154,000 listeners – to now reach 577,000.

Choice moves above another Global London station – XFM – which has seen its audience size drop from 604,000 a year ago to 409,000 in Q1/2012.

Across the UK, the Heart network is up slightly year on year, to 7.484m, while Capital’s total network reach is catching Heart up at 7.048m – in part thanks to increases in Scotland, Yorkshire and on the South Coast. Capital in South Wales and East Midlands saw audiences shrink over the year.

Heart Four Counties was the best performer of the Heart stations – up to 617k now – and there were increases for Heart Solent, Heart Thames Valley and Heart West Country. The brand’s audiences fell however in areas including Cambridgeshire and Kent over the last 12 months.

Global’s national station Classic FM has seen a 10.5% drop in audience size over the year to 5.4m, although there was a 80,000 increase from Q4/11. The XFM brand – in Manchester and London – is down 8.6% in terms of reach year-on-year.

And there were good increases for Gold year-on-year in Birmingham, Devon, North Wales and Sussex, while the oldies station’s reach was down in Thames Valley, London and the East Midlands.

Ashley Tabor, Founder & Executive President said: “To have the highest results for 95.8 Capital FM in 8 years, as we give birth to a new Breakfast show, is a staggering result. Congratulations to the entire team.”

Richard Park, Director of Broadcasting at Global Radio added: “Our radio brands have had a great set of results – increases to Heart and Classic, London remaining strong and satisfying results for Choice and LBC means this is a great start to the year, and a huge morale boost for staff.”