Station boss Peter Woods defended RTE Radio 1’s ratings losses yesterday after thousands of listeners tuned out.
The latest Joint National Listenership Ratings showed RTE, Today FM and Newstalk all suffered a drop in numbers across the board. But the most notable was Radio One, which saw Ryan Tubridy’s morning show shed 25,000 listeners.
The Late Late Show host had 344,000 tuning in compared to 369,000 in the previous quarter. Morning Ireland lost 22,000 listeners with audience figures of 451,000 while Claire Byrne lost 19,000 leaving her with 331,000.
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The JNLRs also revealed Joe Duffy shed 11,000 listeners in the quarter leaving him with 321,000, while Ray D’Arcy dropped 18,000 – seeing him dip under the 200,000 to 197,000.
But head of RTE Radio 1 Mr Woods said the numbers didn’t worry him, adding: “We have massive figures, so our drops look bigger. I just think there is an adjustment because we had a massive book in during Covid and we went right up and we still retain figures we didn’t have before.
“With Morning Ireland it’s 473,000 but I could look at a similar programme on another station that has gone down maybe 7,000 but it has somewhere between 25% and 35% of the listeners of Morning Ireland.
“We’re still holding our percentages.”
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But Mr Woods said there is a concern listeners to the station suffer fatigue. He said: “I’d say you always worry about that. We always look at our content but I’m not worried any more than I am normally worried.”
And he admitted he was scratching his head over why Ryan Tubridy’s show lost so many listeners.
He added: “I think Ryan Tubridy is superb, but I can’t figure it out myself by which I mean he has a connection with the listeners, which very few people have.”
Meanwhile, 2fm also suffered a ratings loss for 2fm Breakfast with Doireann Garrihy, Carl Mullan and Donncha O’Callaghan seeing 123,000 listeners tuning into their show, a drop of just 1,000 since the last quarter.
Jennifer Zamparelli had 7,000 fewer listeners at 131,000 while Tracey Clifford was also down 7,000 to 120,000. Meanwhile, newbies The 2 Johnnie’s remained unchanged since the last quarter with 122,000 listeners to their show.
Head of 2fm Dan Healy admitted he thought the figures would be better.
He said: “It doesn’t feel like we’re down. I think we’re definitely seeing a shrinking of audience mid-morning in Irish radio generally.
“We had this massive Covid deviant so to me 2fm it is a bit like the tide. The Spring tide has come in with the audience in Covid. And now it is gradually receding.”
Today FM’s Ian Dempsey lost 2,000 listeners and now has 199,000 while Pamela Joyce – who replaced Mairead Ronan – is down 4,000 to 130,000 But a spokesman for the station said 75,000 more listeners were tuning into their breakfast shows than their 2FM rivals.
Matt Cooper’s The Last Word also suffered a large drop of 10,000 listeners leaving him with 164,000.
But Ray Foley emerged victorious among broadcasters – with 6,000 more people bringing his listenership up to 149,000 – the biggest- ever afternoon time slot at the station.
Ray said: “Of course I’m completely thrilled and bewildered and overjoyed. It’s wonderful to know that more people are happy to indulge my waffly nonsense as I aim to lower the radio bar every afternoon from 2pm. Tell your friends. And thank you.”
Elsewhere, Pat Kenny lost 7,000 listeners to his Newstalk show with 177,000 now tuning in, while Newstalk Breakfast, Moncrieff and Lunchtime also saw a small drop.
But The Hard Shoulder gained 1,000 more listeners since the last quarter, with 156,000 tuning in.
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