RTÉ news shows attract listeners

The latest radio listenership figures showed a boost for RTÉ's flagship news programmes but a drop for high-profile presenters Marian Finucane and Ryan Tubridy.

Tubridy's audience for his 2fm morning slot continued a marked slide seen in the last set of figures, according to the JNLR/Ipsos MRBI survey.

Tubridy, who began presenting a summer show for BBC Radio 2 last Saturday, recorded a drop of 16,000 to 186,000 listeners.

A second drop in a row was also recorded by Colm Hayes. Hayes, who presents the last hour of Gerry Ryan's old slot, lost 12,000 listeners, giving him a total of 133,000.

Both Tubridy and Hayes were eclipsed by the Ray D'arcy Show, which, despite a drop of 6000, recorded 212,000 listeners.

“Talk of Ray D'Arcy having 26,000 listeners more than Ryan Tubridy is nonsense. Clearly a two-hour show and a three-hour show cannot be compared. The gap is much, much less," John McMahon, Head of 2fm said.

The station also saw the Galway-based breakfast show presented by Hector Ó hEochagáin, drop by 7,000 to 130,000 listeners.

RTÉ Radio produced 19 of the 20 most listened to programmes in the survey which covers the period from July 2010 to June this year.

Both of Marian Finucane's weekend programmes recorded a drop for the second time in a row. Her saturday show lost 8,000 listeners while her sunday show lost 6,000 listeners. However

Both programmes in the 10am weekend slots made impressive gains. Miriam O'Callaghan's Sunday programme, Miriam Meets, added 8,000 listeners to garner an audience of 279,000 while George Lee's saturday business show gained 5,000 listeners, after a 16,000 loss in the last series of figures.

Newstalk Breakfast, co-presented by former Fine Gael Minister Ivan Yates and Chris Donohue gained 11,000 listeners to 110,000.

The listener appetite for news programming on RTÉ Radio One continued to rise with the News at One gaining 4,000 listeners to 342,000. Morning Ireland solidified its spot as the most listened to radio programme with a gain of 4,000 listenres to 460,000.

The second most listened to show Liveline lost 4,000 listeners after large gains last time.

RTÉ's Drivetime with Mary Wilson was the only early evening national news programme to see gains, adding 6,000 listeners. Main rivals Matt Cooper and George Hook dropped 3,000 and 4,000 listeners respectively.

Local radio stations continued to perform well with Donegal's Highland Radio continuing to hold the biggest market share of local stations at 63.5 per cent, a gain of 1.8 per cent