RTÉ and Dublin's Lite FM have suffered losses in the latest radio listenership figures. However Dublin stations NewsTalk 106 and Country 106.8 recorded strong improvements.
The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) covers the period from April to September of this year. It shows overall radio listenership falling from 88 per cent to 86 per cent.
The fall has made the radio market very competitive, particularly in Dublin. However, in this set of figures, smaller Dublin stations that had been suffering - NewsTalk 106 and Country 106.8 - managed to claw their way back.
RTÉ suffered an erosion of its listenership nationally but the biggest losses were in Dublin. In the city, RTÉ Radio One was down 3 per cent to 32 per cent, 2 FM was down 1 per cent at 15 per cent. Lyric FM managed to hold its listenership at 5 per cent.
Nationally, RTÉ also lost listeners, although the picture was less dramatic. RTÉ Radio One was down 1 per cent at 28 per cent; 2 FM was down 2 per cent at 25 per cent and Lyric FM was down 1 per cent at 2 per cent. Today FM also suffered a decline nationally, dropping 2 per cent to 15 per cent.
However, the chief executive of Today FM, Mr Willie O'Reilly, remained upbeat. "I am satisfied that we are performing well in an extremely competitive market. With exciting marketing plans in place for next year, Today FM is looking forward to the challenge of this changing environment."
The managing director of RTÉ Radio, Mr Adrian Moynes, said: "In a market where the overall radio listenership has decreased from 88 per cent to 86 per cent, we are very happy with the stability of the figures shown by the RTÉ radio stations."
Another big loser in the figures was Dublin station Lite FM, which is now owned by UTV. Its listenership dropped 5 per cent to 7 per cent.
Mr Scott Williams, who recently took over as managing director, said all JNLR data was retrospective. "Our listenership pattern will correct itself in future months. Dublin is increasingly a very competitive market place," he said.
Mr Dan Healy, chief executive of NewsTalk, said the station was starting to move forward in a significant way.
Its listenership rose 2 per cent to 4 per cent. "We are very happy with the results. We are taking listeners from across the board in Dublin and are particularly happy that 69 per cent of our listeners are ABC1s."
The station now has almost 40,000 adult listeners on average across the day. Mr Healy said there had been little marketing of the station in recent months and it still managed to increase its presence.
Outside of Dublin, the big winner was the new regional station Beat FM, which serves the southeast. This was the first time it was included in the survey and its 16 per cent listenership figure surprised many in the industry.
Beat's chief executive, Mr Kieran McGeary, said the station was delighted with the performance.
The other major changes nationwide were a drop of 17 per cent for Galway Bay FM and a 6 per cent decline for the Waterford-based WLR FM.