BBC Radio 1's ratings have plunged to an all-time low with Sara Cox's breakfast show losing 130,000 listeners, it emerged today.
Radio 1 recorded its lowest share ever of listening, dipping below 8% for the first time to 7.9% for the first three months of 2003, according to audience figures that put the station's weekly reach at just over 10m.
And its overall audience is just a whisker away from its lowest ever figure with today's Rajar ratings showing just 10,343,000 people tune in each week - only 7,000 more listeners than the station's all-time low of 10,336,000 two years ago.
Radio 1 has lost 170,000 listeners since December 2002 and 200,000 have deserted the station year-on-year despite attempts to rejuvenate the station with new talent and revamped shows.
Sara Cox's breakfast show - which she took over from her best friend Zoe Ball - has lost 130,000 listeners over the quarter and was listened to by 5,819,000 people a week between January and March 2003.
A spokesman for Radio 1 blamed the decline on the huge choice of music young people have from the radio and the internet.
Radio 1's core audience - people aged 15 and over - is down but there has been an increase in the number of young listeners aged four and over.
One of the highlights for the station was its revamp of the Official Top 40 presented by 23-year-old Wes Butters, which increased the show's audience by 113,000 to a total of 2.7m.
The new chart show was also a winner for commercial stations who are taking Hit 40 UK, previously known as the Pepsi chart show.
Its reach has gone up from 82,000 to 2,984,000.
The station now trails badly behind Radio 2, which overtook Radio 1 as the nation's favourite more than five years ago with 13m listeners a week.
The gap with Radio 4, once the preferred choice of the chattering classes, is also closing with Radio 4 attracting just 300,000 fewer listeners.
