{"id":675970,"date":"2026-11-05T18:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T18:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675970\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T18:18:16","slug":"radio-1s-drivetime-down-16000-listeners-in-nine-months-as-claire-byrne-boosts-newstalk-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675970\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio 1’s Drivetime down 16,000 listeners in nine months, as Claire Byrne boosts Newstalk numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

LAST UPDATE
\n |
\n 5 hrs ago\n <\/p>\n

IT\u2019S BEEN A rather mixed bag for RT\u00c9 in the latest radio listening figures published today, though the broadcaster described the numbers as \u201cvery encouraging\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, rival Newstalk saw a bounce to some of its major programming.<\/p>\n

The latest JNLR figures cover the 12-month period up to September of this year.<\/p>\n

The JNLR survey is conducted among an annual sample of around 16,800 people aged 15 and over.<\/p>\n

It uses the \u201cone-day-aided\u201d recall methodology, whereby the respondent recalls all their listening activity for the day prior.<\/p>\n

The survey revealed that almost 3.5 million adults tune into radio every weekday, while close to four million tune in weekly.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9<\/p>\n

A source at RT\u00c9 said the broadcaster has \u201cno concerns\u201d with the latest survey and is \u201chappy\u201d with the figures.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 Radio 1 has a weekly listenership of 1.365 million, up on the last survey, and the top 10 most listened to radio shows are all on Radio 1.<\/p>\n

Last November, Radio 1 launched a new schedule, which included new hosts and a new line-up for its Drivetime programme.<\/p>\n

The 4.30pm start time moved to an earlier time of 4pm and\u00a0presenters Katie Hannon and Colm \u00d3 Mong\u00e1in took over from Sarah McInerney and Cormac \u00d3 hEadhra.<\/p>\n

While the previous iteration of Drivetime left the airwaves with an audience of 222,000, this dropped to 218,000 for the first survey with the new hosts.<\/p>\n

In the last JNLR, the Drivetime listenership dropped further still to 211,000 and in today\u2019s figures, it has an audience of 202,000, a drop of 16,000 since Hannon and \u00d3 Mong\u00e1in took over the helm at a new time slot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Morning Ireland continues to be the most listened to radio programme in Ireland, with a listenership of 464,000.<\/p>\n

While this is an increase of 7,000 on the most recent survey, which covered the 12-month period to June<\/a>, it\u2019s a decrease from the audience of 471,000 that the show had in last year\u2019s survey, which covered the 12 months to September 2025<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Today with David McCullagh has an audience of 421,000, a slight dip of 1,000 when compared to the last survey three months ago.<\/p>\n

\"download\"
\n David McCullagh RT\u00c9<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9\n<\/p>\n

Oliver Callan, meanwhile, sees a slight drop to his programme, losing 2,000 listeners to reach 283,000.<\/p>\n

Over on News at One, the show is up 2,000 to hit an audience of 271,000 when compared to the last survey, but that is down considerably when compared to last year\u2019s audience of 284,000.<\/p>\n

Liveline with Kieran Cuddihy meanwhile is up 14,000 to reach an audience of 268,000. Joe Duffy signed off from the show in 2025 with an audience of 299,000.<\/p>\n

\"download
\n Kieran Cuddihy RT\u00c9<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9\n<\/p>\n

Brendan O\u2019Connor meanwhile sees big gains to his Saturday show but a sizeable decrease to his Sunday show from the last survey, up 11,000 for his Saturday show to hit 411,000 but down 8,000 to 399,000 for his Sunday slot.<\/p>\n

But when compared to last year, Brendan O\u2019Connor has seen a marked decrease, down from 419,000 on Saturday and 427,000 on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, over on RT\u00c9 2FM, it\u2019s good news for 2FM Breakfast with Carl, Roz & Aisling, which has added 14,000 listeners to reach 189,000, while 2FM Mornings with Doireann Garrihy has seen a drop of 7,000 to reach an audience of 79,000.<\/p>\n

Patricia Monahan, director of audio at RT\u00c9, described the figures as \u201cvery encouraging, particularly for RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2033.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess than a year since the launch of the new schedule, it\u2019s fantastic to see that listeners are engaging with new voices and shows across the day,\u201d she added, pointing to \u201csignificant growth\u201d for Kieran Cuddihy on Liveline.<\/p>\n

Newstalk<\/p>\n

Over on Newstalk, Pat Kenny has set a new record for weekend shows on the station.<\/p>\n

His Saturday show has an audience of 175,000, up 8,000 on the most recent survey and the most listened to weekend show in the station\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

His Sunday show also reached a record high of 134,000, up 12,000.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also been a big jump for Claire Byrne, with her mid-morning show adding 12,000 listeners to reach an audience of 222,000.<\/p>\n

\"download
\n Claire Byrne Conor McCabe photography<\/p>\n

Conor McCabe photography\n<\/p>\n

Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage is down slightly, losing 1,000 listeners for an audience of 167,000. He left his Saturday show on Newstalk in February to take over the breakfast show<\/p>\n

\"download
\n Anton Savage Newstalk<\/p>\n

Newstalk\n<\/p>\n

The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman also sees a sizeable increase, up 17,000 to 170,000.<\/p>\n

And on weekday evenings, Off The Ball has added 6,000 listeners since the last survey, to reach an audience of 51,000, while its weekend show has 162,000 listeners, up 29,000.<\/p>\n

Overall, the station had a weekly reach of 882,000, up 27,000 on the last survey and the highest ever weekly reach for the station, and a daily audience of 511,000, an increase of 27,000.<\/p>\n

Eric Moylan, Newstalk\u2019s managing editor, described the figures as \u201cexcellent figures\u201d and added that it \u201cclearly shows that the new schedule is landing with the public\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today FM<\/p>\n

On Today FM, the station grew its weekly audience by a slight 2,000 to hit 976,000.<\/p>\n

But when compared to last year\u2019s survey, it\u2019s a massive jump of 46,000.<\/p>\n

The daily audience is also up a slight 3,000, to hit 527,000 listeners, but year-on-year, it\u2019s an increase of 24,000.<\/p>\n

The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show has added 5,000 listeners since the last survey, with an audience of 245,000, a figure which is 27,000 higher than last year\u2019s survey.<\/p>\n

\"download
\n Ian Dempsey Today FM<\/p>\n

Today FM\n<\/p>\n

Dave Moore sees a drop of 6,000 to 205,000 listeners, but year-on-year, he\u2019s up 1,000.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Last Word with Matt Cooper is unchanged when compared to the last survey, with an audience of 195,000, but he\u2019s up 11,000 year-on-year.<\/p>\n

It means Cooper comfortably beats out Newstalk\u2019s The Hard Shoulder, which is on at a similar time, and he is only 7,000 off RT\u00c9\u2019s Drivetime.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Alison Curtis recorded her highest audience for her Saturday show and has broken the 200,000 mark for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"Alison
\n Alison Curtis Today FM<\/p>\n

Today FM\n<\/p>\n

She has added 16,000 to her audience since the last survey three months ago, to reach 204,000 listeners.<\/p>\n

Regional<\/p>\n

Bauer Media Audio Ireland owns a number of radio stations here, including Newstalk and Today FM as well as a host of regional stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SPIN 1038 has a weekly reach of 242,000 listeners, leading the market among 15 to 34-year-olds.<\/p>\n

Red FM meanwhile remains the most listened to station in Cork, with 157,000 weekly listeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

iRadio, which broadcasts to 15 counties, has a weekly audience of 328,000 listeners, while Beat reaches 171,000 weekly listeners across the South East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

98FM meanwhile has 176,000 weekly listeners and SPIN South West is the most listened to station among 15 to 34-year-olds across the region, with 155,000 weekly listeners.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, IRS+ is the sales\u2019 house of some 15 regional stations, including Radio Nova, Highland Radio, Midwest Radio, Radio Kerry, Northern Sound, East Coast FM, KCLR, Ocean FM, Northern Sound, Tipp FM, South East Radio, Sunshine, Midlands 103, Shannonside and KFM.<\/p>\n

Across this network, the weekly reach is 1.41 million, up 123,000 listeners when compared to 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST UPDATE | 5 hrs ago IT\u2019S BEEN A rather mixed bag for RT\u00c9 in the latest radio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6130,47886,93,61,60,74032,24561,6133,41142,6131,700,74034,6085,54265,47179],"class_list":["post-675970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-claire-byrne","tag-david-mccullagh","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jnlr","tag-kieran-cuddihy","tag-newstalk","tag-oliver-callan","tag-pat-kenny","tag-radio","tag-radio-gaga","tag-rte","tag-rte-2fm","tag-today-fm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}