Nearly four in five adults, or close to 3.2m people, listen to radio every weekday, according to the latest JNLR/Ipsos radio listenership report covering the 12 months to the end of June.
The total represents a slight decline (-0.9%) from the previous survey period, ending in March, with more than half of listeners (51.6%) tuning into a local or regional station, down 0.7%, and 43.4% (-0.1%) listening to a national station.
Irish audiences listen to an average of four hours per day during the prime 7am-7pm period, a decline of 4%, with national radio taking a 46.4% share of all minutes listened to while local listenership stands at 53.6%.
Under a third of adult listeners tune into an RTÉ Radio station with RTÉ Radio 1 the most popular (21.3%), ahead of RTÉ 2FM (5.8%) and RTÉ Lyric FM (2.4%). Bauer's Today FM (9.1%) and Newstalk (7.2%) were the second and third most popular national stations.
RTÉ's share of the market increased 0.3 percentage points during the survey period, Radio 1 makes 17 of the 20 most listened to programmes.
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RTÉ said that Radio 1 (1.39m) had lost 6,000 listeners during the survey period, while 2FM (702,000) had gained 4,000. The company talked up gains for shows such as Countrywide, Playback, The Business, Beo ar Éigean, Céilí House and Sunday Miscellany.
National radio holds a majority share in Dublin (58.3%) and the Dublin commuter belt (59.3%), while local/regional achieves its highest share in Cork (63.6%), the north-west (60%) and the south-west (59.5%).
In Dublin, Spin 1038 saw its share increase 0.7 points to 8.4% while Sunshine 106.8 similarly received a 0.6-point boot to 7.7%. FM104 (down 0.2 points to 6.5%), 98FM (down 0.5 points to 5%), Q102 (down 0.5% to 4.4%) all recorded declines in listener share in the capital.
In Cork, Cork 96FM and C103's share of listeners (36.1%) was nearly as big as that of all national stations (36.4%) following a net 2.2 point increase for the local stations and a 1.6 point fall for national radio, while Cork's Red FM took a 21.1% share of the local market.
Nationally, among younger listeners aged 15-34, 68.5% are daily listeners, and they generally favour local/regional (64.9%) over national (35.1%) despite a 0.8% swing, and local/regional holds its strongest share in Dublin (68.7%), Cork (67.9%), multi-city (66.5%), and the commuter belt (59.5%).
In the 35+ segment, local/regional is slightly ahead, taking a stable 50.8% share compared to national's 49.2%, but national holds sway in Dublin (64.9%), the Dublin commuter region (65.4%), the multi-city area (54.1%) and north-east & midlands region (52.8%).
(Pic: Getty Images)
