Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
KEY SHOWS ACROSS RTE 2FM have lost listeners over the past three months, but the station nevertheless said it had “done extremely well to stabilise the 15 to 34 audience”.
The latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures show a decrease across most of the station’s output.
The JNLR details listenership for radio shows across Ireland, as well as market share.
The survey is conducted among an annual sample of around 16,800 people aged 15 and over.
It uses the “one-day-aided” recall methodology, whereby the respondent recalls all their listening activity for the day prior.
The latest figures cover the third quarter of this year, from July to the end of September.
When compared to the second quarter of the year, 2FM Breakfast is down 7,000 listeners to 142,000.
It’s a similar outlook for Laura Fox, whose show lost 8,000 listeners to an audience of 133,000 for her 9am-12pm show.
Tracy Clifford is down 9,000 listeners to 119,000, 2FM Drive is down 12,000 to 145,000 when compared to Q2 of this year.
It’s good news for Weekend Mornings on 2FM, which has added 17,000 listeners to its Saturday show to hit 153,000 and is up 9,000 on its Sunday show to reach an audience of 137,000.
And it’s a mixed bag for Roz Purcell and Emma Power’s show, which is down 5,000 to 128,000 listeners for its Saturday edition, but up 11,000 for its Sunday show to 109,000.
Dan Healy, the head of RTÉ 2FM, said the team, both on and off air, “have done extremely well to stabilise the 15 to 34 audience Monday to Friday and to keep weekend programming strong”
During the summer, RTÉ sought expressions of interest to create a “long list” of presenters on 2FM following the departure of a number of high-profile presenters from the station.
Healy said the station “received hundreds of applications, many of whom have been piloting shows”.
“We have been working hard on the new schedule and over the next while we will be unveiling our line-up full of gifted radio presenters who we are confident will meet the needs of young audiences in Ireland,” said Healy.
Over on RTÉ Radio 1, it remains the only radio station with a weekly reach of over 1 million and has 891,000 listeners on a weekday, though the weekday figure is down 13,000 when compared to Q2.
Morning Ireland remains the nation’s most listened to radio programme, with 465,000 listeners but this is also a sizeable drop on Q2’s audience of 486,000.
Oliver Callan has added 2,000 listeners to his show to have an audience of 338,000 while Today With Claire Byrne is down slightly to 342,000, a drop of 2,000.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag for Brendan O’Connor, whose Saturday show has gained 2,000 listeners to hit 342,000, though his Sunday edition has lost 7,000 to leave an audience of 339,000.
News at One is up 7,000 to 302,000 listeners, Drivetime is down 3,000 to 221,000, and Liveline with Joe Duffy is up 5,000 to an audience of 307,000.
Peter Woods, the head of RTÉ Radio 1, said it is “particularly heartening for Oliver Callan, who is less than 12 months in that slot”.
Over on Today FM, the station has 973,000 listeners tuning in each week, down 15,000 from Q2.
Its daily reach is also down 6,000 to 483,000.
The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show is down by 1,000 listeners to an audience of 209,000, Dave Moore has taken a sizable hit, losing 15,000 listeners to 209,000.
Ray Foley however is up 14,000 to an audience of 169,000, while The Last Word with Matt Cooper is down 4,000 to 167,000.
And on Newstalk, Pat Kenny takes the title of most listened to show on commercial radio, with 241,000 daily listeners, though this is down slightly from the audience of 244,000 in Q2.
Newstalk has a weekly reach of 861,000, down 8,000.
Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman has retained its audience of 168,000 while Andrea Gilligan’s Lunchtime Live is down 3,000 to 134,000.
The Hard Shoulder with Kieran Cuddihy is down 3,000 listeners to 152,000 but Off The Ball has gained 8,000 to reach an audience of 53,000.
Mark Simpson, deputy managing editor of Newstalk, noted a “significant rise in the listenership” for Off The Ball and added that he is “delighted” that Pat Kenny remains the most listened to commercial radio show.
Meanwhile, the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland has welcomed the figures and noted that the independent radio sector has over 70% combined market share.
Michael Kelly, chief executive of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, said independent radio stations are “delighted with the results”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The decision to cut bus routes is completely short-sighted and counterproductive. By removing such vital public transport options, the authorities are effectively forcing people back into cars, which goes against their supposed goal of reducing car dependency and emissions.
Instead of axing established routes that communities rely on, they should focus on improving and expanding public transport options. Adding new routes, enhancing frequency, and ensuring accessibility would actually encourage more people to use buses. Removing routes that are already in place only alienates loyal users and disrupts entire neighborhoods.
This is not how you build an efficient, sustainable public transport system, it’s how you create frustration and push people away.
The people in this area love a good whinge, having grown up on the area in my experience most of them wouldn’t actually use the bus anywhere as much as they’d have you think. When a welfare (toilet) facility for bus drivers was to be located at the terminus what did they do? They made sure it didn’t happen.
@Matt D: says your man whinging online..
@Matt D: Speak for yourself Matt. I’ve grown up and still live in the area and have relied on the 11 service to go to school on the south side and then UCD for my degree and PHD. My family continues to rely on the 11 for school and work. You maybe don’t know the residents’ of the areas needs as well as you think, our need for the 11 had been well documented!
Looking in at the plans, this looks to be a positive, more sustainable step for public transport in Dublin. Give it a year, and the positives will outweigh the negatives. It will enable more people to be able to access public transport.
Many trips on the 11 to and from DCU back in the day. Still not sure I know how to pronounce Wadelai.
This entire Bus Connect scheme, with new route numbers on the same polluting diesel bus’s is nothing more than a smoke and mirrors “marketing” mirage.
Where are the EV bus’s already bought and in storage?
Why are they not deployed to these hi intensity urban routes?
Instead, we have a few dispersed to rural town routes where traffic congestion and pollution levels are very low by comparison with the main cities!
There is something very awry about this waste of taxpayers funds, just changing route numbers and leaving hundreds of EVs in expensive hibernation.
@William Kelly: And Belfast already has these EV s on regular city routes, with none of this mammoth road rejigging, cop’s on front gardens, thus imposing more noise and air pollution on the defenceless residents. Where is the justice and common sense in that?
@William Kelly: The former Green Party leader who pushed for these EV buses has left politics. This is his legacy. It was all about the here and now with him, no forward thinking similar to the EV cars. Any excuse from the government to put the carbon tax in place and increase it whenever they like.
@William Kelly: Belfast doesn’t have fine gael & Fianna fail. They probably wouldnt put up with their nonsense, bad planing and hypocrisy either
@Nala O’ Neill: The Transport Ireland crew advise the Minister, buy the EV bus’s, but have failed to co-ordinate the operating operational driver training and recharge infrastructure. Ministers do not do this, the octopus bureacratic transport structures we inherit have failed to achieve primary objectives, and changing route numbers is entirely irrelevant.
We need pollution free wheels on hi intensiity urban routes, the bus’s have been bought but not deployed at all.
The only power the Minister has is to impose a clearly needed executive reboot to get the system refocussed on proper results, not rebranding imagery.
There are new Ministers in place since the GE., so get on their case ,not on the previous regime. Thats a waste of time.
@William Kelly: Publicity stunt by the green party.
The trip from the Airport will be longer than most people’s flights. Talk about around the world .
All bus connects does is make things more harder for people
Buses will be full coming from the airport so no hope of getting on further along the route.
Not a single mention in your article that the iconic 46A also is no more from today
The people that live in wadelai won’t like the paragraph that says wadelai park is in ballygall
What’s happening to the south part of this route?
Bikes, bikes, bikes and more bikes.
You could have mentioned that there is finally a service from within Northwood, a residential estate of >4k people, with the new e1 service.
Congratulations to our local volunteer residents association. They ran a very good campaign and achieved significant concessions against the odds!✌️
I like the way the guy complaining about the changes says that getting off at Parnell square is unsafe. No it isn’t. On the rotunda entrance side particularly dozens of buses pickup/drop off all of the time and I never hear of any incident. There are genuine concerns of course that are going to come in with a project like this but there is also a touch of snobbery involved from some residents.
Crazy decision changing the present 145 route ….a lot of students from UCD use this a a direct route from heuston as part of their daily commute.this means for our family a 99.5 km drive (199) return 3 times a week…the new route involves bus changes which is not suitable for a young woman on dark mornings and evenings.Regardless of what people say about safety she is not confident of hers ..from petition (organised by UCD students union) signers I know of 30+ families in the same position with lecture timings…im sure there is a lot more …there is a service from portlaoise to ucd but it does not arrive in time for first lectures and is left before last lecture…but the bright side is that my dirty diesel will help keep emissions and congestion high…way to go NTA…
So you are telling us the north inner city is safe? I don’t think an Garda would agree. My friend had her handbag stolen on Parnell square.
Cool. Did the same northside residents complain to and about Go ahead Ireland, which is a horrible company?
have your say