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CLAIRE BYRNE, JOE Duffy and Ray D’arcy have all lost thousands of listeners in recent months, according to the latest JNLR figures – though it’s not all bad news for the hosts at RTE Radio 1.
According to the JNLR survey, which covered the 12 months up to the end of March 2025, roughly 3.83 million adults are listening to Irish radio every day.
Of these, over 2 million are tuning in to RTÉ. The national broadcaster’s shows dominate the top 20 programmes list, taking a total of 17 spots.
Radio 1 is the most popular station in the State, reaching 1.3 million listeners every week.
Its market share of 35–54 year-olds has grown, outperforming all other stations in that demographic.
RTÉ 2FM retains its position as the most-listened-to by 15-34 year-olds, now reaching 714,000 listeners every week.
Despite the gains made by the station, listenership figures on a number of their top shows are down – including for Joe Duffy’s Liveline, who is down 7,000 listeners since December 2024.
Duffy, who recently announced his upcoming departure from the afternoon radio slot, currently has an audience of 307,000.
Today with Claire Byrne also saw a drop in recent months – Byrne now has 348,000 listeners, down by a thousand since the last JNLR survey.
Louise Duffy’s audience dropped by 5,000 to 223,000 listeners, and Ray D’arcy dropped 2,000 to 192,000 listeners.
Radio 1′s flagship news shows saw mixed results – Morning Ireland increased its listenership by 5,000 to reach an audience of 471,000, while News at One and Drivetime lost a significant number of listeners – 10,000 and 5,000 respectively.
Some Radio 1 hosts saw gains however, with Oliver Callan seeing the largest increase. The host now has an audience of 355,000, up 6,000 in recent months.
Brendan O’Connor also recorded an increase of 5,000 listeners to reach an audience of 363,000.
Elsewhere in Irish radio, Bauer Media (owners of Today FM, Newstalk, Spin1038 and a number of other stations) also recorded mixed results.
The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM recorded a gain of 2,000 listeners to reach a morning audience of 204,000. Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show lost a significant 13,000 listeners however, now hosting an audience of 224,000.
The Last Word with Matt Cooper now holds an audience of 163,000 (down by 4,000 listeners), while Ray Foley hosts 153,000 listeners (down 11,000).
On Newstalk, the Anton Savage Show now has 133,000 listeners on Saturday (up 10,000) and Sunday (up 5,000). Off the Ball on Saturday recorded 157,000 listeners (up an impressive 21,000 listeners) and on Sunday, 146,000 listeners (up 19,000).
Kieran Cuddihy on The Hard Shoulder now has an audience of 153,000, up 3,000 listeners, while Andrea Gilligan’s Lunchtime Live audience is down 5,000 to 134,000.
Moncrieff is down 4,000 to 108,000 listeners.
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Covid Clare need a new Pandemic.
@Dave Grant: In the Sauna Part 2
Pat Kenny was a favourite of mine on Newstalk until recently – had to stop listening as he was giving too much air time to the pathological liar and chief propaganda spokesperson for the Israeli apartheid government who no longer occupy an embassy here in our country yet seem to be granted unlimited airtime by Newstalk to spread constant lies in order to deflect the media away from their daily war crimes
@Chaotic State: Best to listen to these people, I have listened to that lady and give her enough rope and all that she digs her own hole every time. Gives a direct insight into how they think and nobody is fooled.
@Chaotic State: Pat Kenny is employed by Newstalk which is owned by the German Bauer media group who’s CEO is Yvonne Bauer. Now guess what religion she is.
@Leonard Barry: Pat Kenny regularly and consistently is hugely critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. He regularly has Fawaz Gerges on his show, a vocal but fair critic of Israel and the US.
that Pat Kenny is a class act, I could listen to him all day and night. Best broadcaster this country has ever produced
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: Agreed. And yet I know loads of people who used to listen to him everyday on RTE but never listen to him now because he’s on Newstalk.
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: “And now I’m off to sue an old lady for a field because I need that money to”
That man in the audience was ahead of us all.
@Stanley Marsh: And how pathetic is that.
@Gerry Lamont: why is it pathetic? I leave my kitchen radio turned to Radio 1 24/7
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: Always thought he was a bit simple tbh
153000 people listening to Ray Foley…..says it sll really
@Keith Bourke: they must be listening to radio for the deaf.
Save the children from israeli terrorists
@Tommy445: the children are bought up as Hamas terrorists
I can’t believe 2fm still has listenership.
Difficult to continue listening to Sarah McInerney consistently apologising for Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Talentless D’Arcy.
About as much talent between them , as the back legs of a pantomime horse.
@Nick Gall: so you’re saying all of those mentioned, all of them now, have as much talent as the back legs of a pantomime horse….. You’re a complete dose.
OK, radio nova has been banging on all day about them having the biggest listenership jump. Not sure of the category but thers zero mentions in this article.
Bunch of establishment tossers
3.8m adults in Ireland listen to the radio every day. An incredible stat. I wonder what the average number of listening hours is
@Kev Kerr: id say they’re counting the people who listen in the car in the morning for 10-15 mins while they’re driving to work. I doubt it’s 3.4 million who are listening for a couple of hours a day or anything.
Oliver Callan and Anton Savage deserve their increased listenership. They’re both brilliant
I enjoy Claire Byrne. She knows her stuff and asks the right questions. Before her programme we have Marty in the Morning….gorgeous taste in music on Lyric.
Hopefully Joe doesn’t retire, end of an era
@Basildon Joe: the best thing about Joe Duffy being a radio host was the laughs I got looking at Dave McSavage taking the urine out of him. Very funny parody
@anthony lambe: Ah jaysus sure it’s terrible when the hurt are hurtin the hurted
@anthony lambe: Sure…Sure
Most of the so called talent that RTE thinks it’s able grasp the ear of the nation is belonging to Noel Kelly who is the real Director General of RTE and not poor Kevin Bakhurst
Current affairs on radio is pretty drab and sanitised. Music on radio 1 and Lyric is excellent. Otherwise it’s podcasts for me.
Cant listen to any of it really, bla bla, they say the same thing over and over, same music over and over. Cant see it 0lasting with the availability and success of podcast and internet radio
I can see why the last word has falling listenership. The only person who has the last word is matt cooper. The experts are all journalist friends of Matt cooper. The todsy fm ads that the listeners can have the last word is misleading. The only person who has the last word is matt cooper
@Mark Daly: john gibbons is an environmental journalist. And is anti business. Pro environment. Anti progress and is 100 % Anti o leary and Anti Ryanair.
Ian guider is pro business and his stewardship of the last word remains the only time that a host pushed back against john gibbons and his oleary bashing. Guider stated quite fairly that o leary was not thier to defend himself. Gibbons doesn’t like o leary. Even thought eamonn gave oleary for sustainable air fuel. Something gibbons will never do. O leary is a tony ryan acolyte. As is Dennis o brien. Ryan invented the cheapest airline model which oleary made a huge success when he took over the company as Ryanair ceo
David mcsavage, angered joe Duffy to the point that Duffy nearly sued rte and demanded that if they didn’t take the savage eye off the air. He was going to walk out of montrose
The mcsavage stuff is bit below the belt but is very funny. The stuff with joe Duffy with nipple hassles and a gimp mask is brutally funny but I can see why Duffy took that very personally. It seemed to cross a line
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