RTÉ's 'Drivetime' ousts Cooper in latest radio figures

RTÉ has come out on top over Today FM in the keenly fought battle for teatime listeners, according to the latest radio listenership figures.

The station's Drivetimeprogramme, fronted by Mary Wilson, saw its listenership grow by 16,000 listeners to 223,000, the survey by JNLR/TNSmrbi shows, thereby leapfrogging The Last Word, presented by Matt Cooper on Today FM. The latter's audience grew by 5,000 to 220,000.

Over on Newstalk, George Hook's teatime show increased its audience from 94,000 to 97,000.

While many RTÉ shows improved their listenership figures, Ryan Tubridy, Pat Kenny and Ruth Buchanan all lost listeners.

Overall, however, RTE broadcast the nine most listened-to shows in the State. The survey covers the period April 2007-March 2008, and comparisons are made with the previous survey for the period January-December 2007.

The most impressive performance came from Gerry Ryan, whose morning programme on 2FM added 14,000, giving a total audience of 328,000.

There was good news, too, for Marian Finucane, whose Saturday show moved up to fourth spot on the rankings with a total audience of 309,000, up 7,000 on the last survey. Finucane's Sundaymoved from 12th place to 8th place in the listings, with a total audience of 253,000.

Morning Irelandcemented its position as the most popular programme in the State by adding another 7,000 listeners, giving a total of 437,000. Livelinewith Joe Duffy saw its audience grow by 1,000 to 363,000.

The latest survey shows signs of a stabilisation in overall radio listenership after a period of gradual decline. Some 84 per cent of the adult population were listening daily to national regional, or local radio, the same as in the last set of figures.

Local radio continued to improve its position marginally, with a 0.3 per cent increase in daytime market share, to 47.9 per cent. RTÉ Radio 1 once again had the greatest market share of any station, 21.4 per cent, followed by 2FM at 12.8 per cent. Today FM was at 12.1 per cent and Newstalk at 3.7 per cent.

Highland Radio was the most popular local radio station once again, with a market share of almost 63 per cent in its catchment area in Co Donegal.