Dublin radio stations split on gender

RTÉ 2fm's announcement that ex-Westlife singer Nicky Byrne is to present a weekday mid-morning show on the station would seem to tally with, rather than undermine, the station's relative popularity with women.

Notwithstanding the dearth of female DJs on 2fm’s daytime presenting roster in recent times, women comprise 59 per cent of the station’s 394,000 daily listeners.

Among music-based stations competing in the Dublin market, only 98FM has a higher proportion of female listeners, at 62 per cent.

Some 57 per cent of Q102’s listeners are women, as are 56 per cent of Spin 103.8’s audience.

FM104 also has more women than men tuning in, with a 55:45 split, an analysis of the latest Joint National Listenership Research ratings by media agency OMD shows.

Nova men
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its male-dominated, rock-tastic playlist, some 68 per cent of the people who listen to Radio Nova are men, while the listenership of the self-proclaimed "home of rock in Dublin", Phantom 105.2, is 53 per cent male.

But a male audience skew and a fondness for guitar-based music is pretty much all Radio Nova and Phantom have in common these days.

While Radio Nova’s average daily audience has increased to 50,000, Phantom’s has slipped to 15,000 – having almost halved over the past four years.