In the court of Rajar, no one radio station reigns forever, and the nature of the data means that a service demonstrably failing can also be heralded a success. More important than a snapshot is a consideration for trends displayed over time.
The radio listening figures released last week are a good example. In London's commercial marketplace, Global Radio's Heart 106.2 and 95.8 Capital FM claimed first and second prize in terms of reach – the number of listeners aged 15+ tuning in every week. The same figures, however, showed that while Magic 105.4 had fewer listeners, they listened to the station for longer – an average of 6.8 hours a week, compared to Heart's 5.7 hours and just 5.5 hours for Capital. Consequently, Magic recorded a market share of 6.1%, ahead of Heart's 5.3% and well in front of Capital on 4.9%.
Furthermore, neither Heart nor Capital was Global Radio's top dog in London – the all-speech service LBC 97.3 recorded a modest weekly reach of 841,000 listeners but impressive average hours of 13.6, resulting in a market share of 5.7%.
Speech radio outside the BBC is rarely celebrated, but the new listening figures proved that commercial radio is providing a popular alternative. TalkSport posted a formidable set of results - a weekly reach of 2.5 million listeners and total hours of 20.44m – the station's highest in five years.
The headlines on Absolute Radio have concentrated on its continued loss of audience, which has been significant – from 2.4 million in September 2008, to 1.5 million – although losing a brand such as Virgin from the Rajar diaries was always going to have a big impact. However, Absolute has already posted noticeably higher average hours than Virgin managed in recent years, and the latest figure of 7.6 hours is the highest in the service's 16-year history.
Absolute has built on Virgin's innovative approach with the extensive use of podcasts, mobile applications and new radio services such as Dabbl. This allows sampling but also builds loyalty, which is critical as data streaming to smartphones becomes prevalent. Perhaps this trend suggests Absolute is getting it right after all, despite the headlines.
