Rajar Q2 2011: Elton John helps Magic leapfrog Capital to regain London's top spot

 View the table of national results here

According to Q2 Rajar figures published today (4 August), Magic increased its weekly reach by 14.4% quarter on quarter, and 11.7% year on year, to almost 2.3 million listeners.

The radio station's hours and market share also increased, rising 19.4% and 15.1% quarter on quarter respectively. The station has been boosted by its on and off air promotion of the inaugural Magic Summer Live event, starring Sir Elton John, the Lighthouse Family and Rumer.

Magic's breakfast presenter Neil Fox increased his reach by 4.3% to 845,000 quarter on quarter, snatching second position ahead of Heart 106.2’s Jamie Theakston, which dropped
7.9% qoq and -14.4% yoy.

Steve Parkinson, managing director, Bauer Radio London, told Media Week: "Magic has had one of its best books ever. I’ve just sent thank you notes to Elton John, Kim Wilde and Rick Astley.

"We ran a lot of on-air and off-air promotion for our Magic Summer Live with Elton which raised our profile, and [Magic 105.4 presenters] Kim and Rick have helped our weekends become as strong as our weekdays.

"Last quarter was an anomaly and now we’re back at 2.2 million reach and 14 million hours, which is great. We’ve beaten Radio 2 twice in the past 12 months so the fight is on." 

Elsewhere in the city, there was reason for cheer at rival Global Radio after Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon retained bragging rights as London’s favourite commercial breakfast show.

Despite dropping 6.8% since Q1, the breakfast show's 1.14 million listeners on Capital FM each week represented a rise of 23,000 listeners (2.1%) from last year.

Vaughan said: "London we've done it again. What an honour to still be the capital’s number one Breakfast Show. As always, Lisa and I would like to say a huge thank you to all of our listeners for their continued support and to our amazing team who help us to make the show so special every single day."

In what proved to be a strong period for commercial radio in London, Absolute Radio’s Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show enjoyed a 28% lift quarter on quarter, up 44% year on year, to reach an all time high of 1.3 milllion listeners.

The show’s success follows the latest instalment of Absolute’s million pound 'Faces for Radio' marketing campaign, starring O'Connell, Frank Skinner and Dave Gorman. The activity, created by Albion and planned by MEC, included print, outdoor and digital.

"What do you know, advertising works," joked Clive Dickens, chief operating officer of Absolute. "This is an incredible set of numbers for the Absolute Radio brand.

Speaking to Media Week, Dickens, who has also worked alongside both Chris Tarrant and Chris Moyles during his radio career, went on to praise O’Connell’s Breakfast team five and a half years since it first launched, for its "ingenuity and skill".

He said: "In my experience it's no coincidence that it takes time to develop a successful breakfast show."

Noting that it takes time for the audience to know what to expect and for an expert radio team to really know how best to serve its audience, he added: "Christian’s got an incredibly strong team around him and is undoubtedly producing some of the best shows of his career."

The fastest growing station in London went to Global's Gold, up 51% from Q1 and 19.2% on the year. Other successes across the capital include XFM, Sunrise Radio, Kiss and Choice FM.

 

RAJARs: London breakfast shows Q2 2011
		Weekly reach in thousands			Change (%)
		Q2 2011	Q1 2011	Q2 2010	yr/yr	pd/pd
Total Absolute Radio London (Q)	6am - 10 am	593	499	-	-	18.8%
Capital London (Q)	6am - 10 am	1143	1227	1120	2.1%	-6.8%
Choice FM London (Q)	6am - 9 am	212	185	200	6.0%	14.6%
Gold London (Q)	6am - 10 am	211	139	177	19.2%	51.8%
Heart London (Q)	6am - 9 am	792	860	925	-14.4%	-7.9%
Kiss 100 FM (Q)	6am - 9 am	789	761	903	-12.6%	3.7%
LBC 97.3 (Q)	7am - 10 am	532	589	576	-7.6%	-9.7%
LBC News 1152 (Q)	7am - 10 am	187	190	155	20.6%	-1.6%
Magic 105.4 (Q)	5am - 9 am	845	839	849	-0.5%	0.7%
Smooth Radio London (Q)	6am - 10 am	170	244	219	-22.4%	-30.3%
Sunrise Radio (Q)	6am - 9 am	213	164	130	63.8%	29.9%
XFM London (Q)	6.30 - 10 am	283	274	222	27.5%	3.3%

 

Q: Data representative of quarterly period

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk