Evening Standard: The battle for the London radio listener
Who Turns On London?: The battle for the hearts and ears of this city is becoming increasingly acrimonious. David Rowan reports on the latest audience figures
NEXT time you retune your radio, take care: you're in a war zone now, and the conflict's just got dirtier. What appeared last week to be just another quarterly listening survey - the usual fog of statistics from the industry number-crunchers, Rajar - has provoked more fury than a Chris Evans three-day bender.
The first missile came from Emap Radio, claiming that its station Kiss 100 FM had now overtaken Capital in attracting 15- to 24-year-old males, a key market for advertisers. Within hours came Capital's counterattack, stating that Emap has 'been distorting the truth': when both sexes are brought into the equation, Capital is the true market leader among that age range.
There followed a press campaign by Capital questioning Kiss's very coolness, which Kiss went on to mock as the last shout of a decadent culture. Capital FM's Chris Tarrant: the station disputes claims that it is losing out in the youth market 'They're a bit like the Roman Empire splitting up, uncomfortable about becoming just another powerful nation state,' says Kiss MD Mark Story. 'Capital has become the establishment, and has got to move over.'
Certainly, Capital remains by far the biggest of London's radio broadcasters, drawing 3.6 million weekly adult listeners, or a 16.2 per cent audience share, with its FM, Gold and Xfm stations. Among almost 35 legitimate stations clamouring for Londoners' attention, Gold and FM may have gradually been losing audience share, but the first-mover advantage has clearly allowed Capital to maintain its dominance.
Kiss may have only 1.6 million weekly listeners, but its share of listening is growing all the time: from 3.3 per cent two years ago, to 4.3 per cent last year and 4.6 per cent in the most recent quarter. 'Capital has hit a point where it can't defend the territory it's set itself, the 15-to-50-year-olds,' says Story, himself a veteran of Capital and a former producer of Simon Mayo's Radio 1 breakfast show. 'You can't be all things to all people. Kiss is the gorilla fighting in their living room: every time we do something, it's their ornaments we smash.'
'Our competition has got smarter,' admits Elly Smith, head of press for the Capital Radio Group, 'but Capital FM still has a 28 per cent weekly reach and tends to be younger listeners' first choice. Even with all the choice in London, the average person only listens to 2.6 radio stations. They stay pretty loyal.'
But the national stations are reporting growing audience share in the London region. Radio 4 remains Londoners' favourite national station, with 2.6 million listeners, yet the revival of Radio 2 and Radio 1 have also been eating into Londoners' listening time. Radio 2 attracts 1.9 million Londoners each week, and Radio 1 takes 1.7 million. Classic FM added some 275,000 new listeners in the capital over the past three months, raising its reach here to more than 1.5 million. This, it is proud to note, makes it the city's third-largest commercial station.
ONE notable failure to gain Londoners' ears has been the BBC's local channel, London Live, which has just fallen to a paltry 0.8 per cent listening share, down from 1.2 per cent a year ago. This follows a rebranding of the station - it was formerly GLR - in March 2000, after what a spokeswoman calls 'an insidious and pretty terminal decline in listenership'.
ITN News Direct has dropped to a 0.6 per cent share since yet another rebranding, but its sister station, LBC 1152AM, saw its number of listeners per week rise by a third, though the station does not make the capital's top 10.
One other London station is facing its own particular worries. Premier Christian Radio is reaching 158,000 Londoners a week, more than three times Liberty's audience, with its mix of 'Christian music and personality programmes, presentations on Bible teaching, reflections, and Christian perspective on the news'.
Premier is campaigning to convince the Radio Authority to extend its broadcasting licence for a further eight years. Still, unlike the other commercial players, Premier has its own secret weapon. 'Please sign the petition today,' the station is now urging listeners. 'Then pray.'
[TABLE]
London radio: the top ten
Listeners aged 15+ in the three months to 24 June 2001, Source: Rajar/Ipsos-RSL Station
Weekly listeners (thousands)/Share of listening (%) 95.8 Capital FM 2,832/11.1
BBC Radio 4 (London only) 2,600/14.1
BBC Radio 2 (London only) 1,900/10.6
BBC Radio 1 (London only) 1,700/5.0
Kiss 100 FM 1,570/4.6
Heart 106.2FM 1,568/5.0
Classic FM (London only) 1,500/4.8
Virgin London 1,293/3.9
Magic 105.4 1,291/4.6
BBC Radio 5 Live (London only) 1,200/4.0
(Evening Standard, August 8 2001)
NEXT time you retune your radio, take care: you're in a war zone now, and the conflict's just got dirtier. What appeared last week to be just another quarterly listening survey - the usual fog of statistics from the industry number-crunchers, Rajar - has provoked more fury than a Chris Evans three-day bender.
The first missile came from Emap Radio, claiming that its station Kiss 100 FM had now overtaken Capital in attracting 15- to 24-year-old males, a key market for advertisers. Within hours came Capital's counterattack, stating that Emap has 'been distorting the truth': when both sexes are brought into the equation, Capital is the true market leader among that age range.
There followed a press campaign by Capital questioning Kiss's very coolness, which Kiss went on to mock as the last shout of a decadent culture. Capital FM's Chris Tarrant: the station disputes claims that it is losing out in the youth market 'They're a bit like the Roman Empire splitting up, uncomfortable about becoming just another powerful nation state,' says Kiss MD Mark Story. 'Capital has become the establishment, and has got to move over.'
Certainly, Capital remains by far the biggest of London's radio broadcasters, drawing 3.6 million weekly adult listeners, or a 16.2 per cent audience share, with its FM, Gold and Xfm stations. Among almost 35 legitimate stations clamouring for Londoners' attention, Gold and FM may have gradually been losing audience share, but the first-mover advantage has clearly allowed Capital to maintain its dominance.
Kiss may have only 1.6 million weekly listeners, but its share of listening is growing all the time: from 3.3 per cent two years ago, to 4.3 per cent last year and 4.6 per cent in the most recent quarter. 'Capital has hit a point where it can't defend the territory it's set itself, the 15-to-50-year-olds,' says Story, himself a veteran of Capital and a former producer of Simon Mayo's Radio 1 breakfast show. 'You can't be all things to all people. Kiss is the gorilla fighting in their living room: every time we do something, it's their ornaments we smash.'
'Our competition has got smarter,' admits Elly Smith, head of press for the Capital Radio Group, 'but Capital FM still has a 28 per cent weekly reach and tends to be younger listeners' first choice. Even with all the choice in London, the average person only listens to 2.6 radio stations. They stay pretty loyal.'
But the national stations are reporting growing audience share in the London region. Radio 4 remains Londoners' favourite national station, with 2.6 million listeners, yet the revival of Radio 2 and Radio 1 have also been eating into Londoners' listening time. Radio 2 attracts 1.9 million Londoners each week, and Radio 1 takes 1.7 million. Classic FM added some 275,000 new listeners in the capital over the past three months, raising its reach here to more than 1.5 million. This, it is proud to note, makes it the city's third-largest commercial station.
ONE notable failure to gain Londoners' ears has been the BBC's local channel, London Live, which has just fallen to a paltry 0.8 per cent listening share, down from 1.2 per cent a year ago. This follows a rebranding of the station - it was formerly GLR - in March 2000, after what a spokeswoman calls 'an insidious and pretty terminal decline in listenership'.
ITN News Direct has dropped to a 0.6 per cent share since yet another rebranding, but its sister station, LBC 1152AM, saw its number of listeners per week rise by a third, though the station does not make the capital's top 10.
One other London station is facing its own particular worries. Premier Christian Radio is reaching 158,000 Londoners a week, more than three times Liberty's audience, with its mix of 'Christian music and personality programmes, presentations on Bible teaching, reflections, and Christian perspective on the news'.
Premier is campaigning to convince the Radio Authority to extend its broadcasting licence for a further eight years. Still, unlike the other commercial players, Premier has its own secret weapon. 'Please sign the petition today,' the station is now urging listeners. 'Then pray.'
[TABLE]
London radio: the top ten
Listeners aged 15+ in the three months to 24 June 2001, Source: Rajar/Ipsos-RSL Station
Weekly listeners (thousands)/Share of listening (%) 95.8 Capital FM 2,832/11.1
BBC Radio 4 (London only) 2,600/14.1
BBC Radio 2 (London only) 1,900/10.6
BBC Radio 1 (London only) 1,700/5.0
Kiss 100 FM 1,570/4.6
Heart 106.2FM 1,568/5.0
Classic FM (London only) 1,500/4.8
Virgin London 1,293/3.9
Magic 105.4 1,291/4.6
BBC Radio 5 Live (London only) 1,200/4.0
(Evening Standard, August 8 2001)
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