RTÉ management is considering introducing further changes to the line-up on RTÉ Radio 1 following the publication of the latest listenership statistics, writes Emmet Oliver.
Leading broadcasters such as Marian Finucane and Pat Kenny suffered significant erosion of their audience, while younger broadcasters like Gerry Ryan, Ryan Tubridy and Rachel English managed to strengthen their presence. At Today FM, Ray D'Arcy significantly added to his audience.
RTÉ executives have now got to decide whether Tubridy will be allowed to host - on a long-term basis - his own show from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., effectively shaving one hour off Today With Pat Kenny. According to sources yesterday, the latest figures may make this more likely, but nothing has been decided yet, said an official spokeswoman.
Pat Kenny's audience dropped from 332,000 to 301,000, leaving the programme back in sixth position in the top 10 of radio shows. Marian Finucane's was the third most listened to programme, but its audience slipped back from 383,000 to 357,000.
Such significant audience erosion was not uniform at RTÉ, with Ryan Tubridy increasing his audience by 19,000 and Gerry Ryan managing to push his audience from 360,000 to 382,000. Five Seven Live, hosted by Rachel English, also reported strong progress, with a new record audience of 225,000. Liveline with Joe Duffy recorded a rise of 3,000 to finish with a total of 344,000.
The station was also satisfied with its performance outside prime time, with Tonight With Vincent Browne up from 40,000 to 51,000. As is traditional, the number one radio programme was Morning Ireland, with 476,000 listeners, almost unchanged from 2003.
Ms Eithne Hand, deputy managing director of RTÉ Radio, said "we are happy the figures are relatively stable in a more crowded market".
The Joint National Listenership Survey covers the whole of 2004 and shows listenership for RTÉ Radio 1 dropping by 1 per cent to 27 per cent and 2 FM dropping by 1 per cent to 24 per cent. Today FM, also a national service, managed to increase its listenership by 1 per cent to 15 per cent. Lyric FM was unchanged at 3 per cent.
In terms of regional stations Beat FM, based in the south east area, posted its first full-year figure of 19 per cent.
In Dublin the competition between stations continued to be intense. 98 FM was one of the biggest losers, shedding 3 per cent of its listeners, most likely at the expense of traditional rival FM 104. Q102, owned by UTV, reported strong progress. One of the biggest winners was the youth station Spin FM, which managed to increase its listenership in 2004 by 4 per cent.
NewsTalk chief executive Mr Dan Healy said the station continued to make steady progress.