The phenomenal popularity of radio presenter Ken Bruce has seen the mid-morning assassin continue to steal listeners from Radio 2, eleven months after leaving the station for a commercial rival.
Official data shows that former BBC Radio 2 stalwart Bruce, who now presents the pre-lunchtime 10am slot on Greatest Hits Radio, has increased his audience from 2.2m a week when he started with the station in the second quarter of last year to 3.8 million.
Bruce spent three decades presenting the same mid-morning time slot on Radio 2, where his trademark PopMaster music quiz helped build the biggest audience in British radio. Bruce was also able to take PopMaster from the BBC to his new employer, after personally securing the trademark during the 1990s.
The radio host’s success is part of a wider drift of audiences to commercial outlets. As a result, the BBC, which until recently dominated the radio market, now only accounts for 43% of all time spent listening to the radio – while commercial stations have surged to 55% of listening hours. The other 2% is listening to other outlets such as local community stations. For its part, the BBC says it is increasingly focused on its BBC Sounds app and commissioning podcasts.
Charlotte Moore, BBC chief content officer, said: “I’m pleased that BBC Sounds continues to grow as audiences discover on-demand programming from us whenever they want to, and are able to choose from a wide range of high-quality BBC podcasts and music content to suit their moods.”
Commercial rivals have been more nimble in terms of launching new digital-only outlets – and able to pay big money to lure away the BBC’s stars.
While Bruce’s vacated slot – now hosted by Vernon Kay – remains the most popular radio show in the UK, Radio 2 has now lost 1.5 million listeners from the time slot since the departure of Bruce, according to analysis by radio consultancy Hallett Arendt.
However, the loss of listeners at BBC Radio 2 is now showing some signs of slowing down. The station had an average weekly audience of 13.3 million people in October to December 2023, down 7% from 14.3 million a year earlier but a fall of just 1% on the previous three months, according to Rajar figures.
Greatest Hits Radio, in large part thanks to Bruce’s success, has seen a large jump in its average audience over the last 12 months, up 70% from 4 million to 6.8 million. Simon Mayo, another defector from BBC Radio 2 to Greatest Hits Radio, where he hosts the drive-time show, said he was “delighted” at the station’s success.
“We’re hearing from more and more listeners who continue to find us on Greatest Hits Radio for Confessions, All-Request Friday and all the other fun stuff. What a very pleasant start to 2024,” he said.
Radio 4’s Today programme – which is facing increased competition from podcasts and rival talk stations – had 5.6 million listeners in the latest quarter, down from 6.2 million a year earlier. The programme’s audience tends to fluctuate in line with big news stories.
Radio 4’s average audience was 9.1 million across the last three months of 2023, down from 9.3 million in the previous quarter and 10.1 million a year earlier, but higher than 9 million in April to June. Radio 5 Live had 5.2 million listeners between October to December 2023, down 6% on both the previous quarter and a year earlier, but higher than 5 million in April to June.
The industry wide figures show the UK’s digital audience is now at an all time high of 42.8 million, while podcasts are reaching record audiences of 11.4 million.
