Smooth Radio becomes largest commercial station outside of London

Smooth Radio in the North West has become the largest commercial radio station outside of London, according to the latest figures from RAJAR.

The station, now owned by Communicorp, has broken through the 1m listeners barrier for the first time.

That is partly due to a natural rise in listening figures, but also due to the changed radio landscape in the North of England over the last few months. Communicorp’s acquisition of 8 radio stations from Global Radio meant that Global’s purchase of GMG Radio could go through. So where once there were Real brands, there is now Heart, while Gold has become Smooth. In addition to having more stations, there has also been a growth in the total survey area for a number of Smooth stations, leading to more potential listeners.

Nationally, the picture remains rosy for radio listening, 48.1m adults, that’s 90% of the UK 15+ population tuned into the radio each week in the first quarter of 2014. That’s up by around 800,000 on the same period last year.

More than 1bn hours of radio were listened to each week this quarter.

Digital is still slow on the uptake, with an increase of just 4% year-on-year, but in total 27.1m listeners tune in via DAB, DTV or online.

Elsewhere, Key 103 continues its climb from a 5.1% share in Q3, it’s now up to 10.2% and critically, that’s placed it ahead of Capital Manchester in terms of both share and listeners.  The total of 660,000 marks an 11 year high for the station.

Regional UTV Media stations in the North of England have collectively posted a 9% increase in the number of average hours over the year.

“These figures come during a fantastic week for our local stations where they proved their worth amongst some of the biggest names in the radio industry at Monday’s Radio Academy Awards. The Academy judges praised how well the stations target our local audiences and this is clearly reflected in these brilliant figures,” said Iain Fowler, director of Local Radio for UTV Media (GB).

The Revolution in Oldham, which was sold by Steve Penk in January of this year has seen share increase from 2.7% to 3.8%, and listening figures rise from 248,000 to 349,000 over the quarter.

Bauer’s Metro Radio has achieved its best market share in 7 years, with 13.4%, which is higher than BBC Radio 2 in that region.

Star NE South (formerly Alpha 103.2) has had a strong performance this quarter, up from 6.&5 to 8.6%, as has Lincs FM’s Yorkshire operation, KCFM 99.8, in Kingston upon Hull, up from 6.5% to 7.3%.