[article] Latest listener numbers JNLR/TNS

mike65

from unison

RTE's youth radio station 2FM has suffered another blow in the latest listenership survey, with the gap between 2FM star Gerry Ryan and Today FM rival Ray D'Arcy closing further.

In more bad news for 2FM, Today FM's early morning show with Ian Dempsey passed out Marty Whelan's show for the first time. While big name presenters at sister station RTE Radio 1 performed well, 2FM lost ground with listeners across the country amid claims that its line-up is too old for an under-35s station.

Winners

Across the board, winners included Today FM's Matt Cooper, and Newstalk's George Hook and Eamon Dunphy.

Although Gerry Ryan still has a major following at 2FM, tens of thousands of fans have deserted him over the past 18 months.

Just three years ago Ryan had an audience of 380,000, leaving D'Arcy in the shade with 150,000 listeners. However, the younger rival has been catching up ever since. Ryan's show now attracts 320,000 - a fall of 11,000 in the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) report published yesterday - while D'Arcy's morning mix is listened to by 225,000 people.

The latest figures, covering April 2005 to March 2006, mean that Ryan's show has dropped from third most popular radio show on RTE, down to fourth after Liveline with Joe Duffy.

Earlier in the schedule Marty Whelan, who replaced Ryan Tubridy, now has an audience of 208,000, a drop of 9,000.

But Today FM's Ian Dempsey added 3,000 new listeners, giving him a total audience of 216,000.

Overall, 2FM's listenership fell by one point nationally to give it a reach of 20pc, while Today FM had a national reach of 15pc, which is unchanged.

Over at Radio 1, Ryan Tubridy proved that he has the pulling power of his predecessor Marion Finucane, growing listenership by 5,000 to 344,000.

While Morning Ireland lost 13,000 listeners, bringing the show down to 463,000 listeners, Joe Duffy, Five Seven Live and Pat Kenny made small gains, with Kenny now attracting 295,000 listeners.

I've just included the national stations, I think its time Gerry Ryan was pensioned off to RTE Radio 1, the man is about 53 and while Larry Gogan got away with it for years his show was of a different nature in a less important slot. Mind you where he'd fit is another matter. Marty Wheelan at 6 am does'nt exactly help RTEs cause. he could just as easily be doing Rising Time
instead of Maxi.

Mike.

byte

I agree, Ryan is now better suited perhaps to Radio 1.

Who would be a suitable replacement do ya think?