Times Radio has become the fastest-growing national news station over the first quarter, according to the latest figures.
President Trump’s attempted annexation of Greenland and the war in Iran helped listenership rise by 11 per cent compared to the previous quarter to achieve a near-record reach of 604,000 average weekly listeners.
Times Radio breakfast, which welcomed new presenter Rosie Wright to its roster alongside Stig Abell, Kate McCann and Calum Macdonald grew to 343,000 listeners, according to figures released by Rajar, the industry measurement body.
Tim Levell, the programme director for Times Radio, said the fast-paced global news cycle was a critical factor in the gains. “Listeners in droves tuned in to follow the latest updates and impact Donald Trump was doing on the world stage — first with his campaign around Greenland and then the war in Iran.”
The uncertainty also boosted rival stations with BBC Radio 5 live’s breakfast show up 6 per cent to 1.4 million. BBC Radio 4 Today’s programme was broadly flat with 5.6 million listeners.
Elsewhere in breakfast, BBC Radio 2 show maintained a consistent performance, drawing 6.5 million listeners for the last full reporting period with Scott Mills as host.
The presenter departed the nation’s biggest breakfast show following historical allegations surrounding his personal conduct that emerged in March.
The first quarter of 2026 also welcomed the introduction of several BBC spin-off stations which had sparked dismay from the commercial radio sector over the impact on their audiences.
BBC Radio 3 Unwind launched to an initial audience of 388,000 listeners, around the number of people lost by Classic FM. The commercial station entertained 4.2 million listeners, down about 8 per cent year-on-year.
Radio 1 Dance debuted with 437,000 weekly listeners, some way short of the consistent 1.5 million who tuned into Kiss.
Radio 1 Anthems arrived with a similar audience of 417,000 some way adrift of Absolute Radio’s 2 million and Virgin Radio’s 1 million, which lost around a quarter of its audience.
Kate Phillips, the BBC chief content officer, said: “The BBC continues to be the number one radio brand and I’m delighted that 2026 has got off to such an impressive start with audiences across the country enjoying our unrivalled music and speech offer.
“This quarter is the first to include data from our new brand extensions on DAB+ for Radio 1 and Radio 3 and its great news to see how successfully they have performed.
“As the audio landscape continues to go through rapid change, the strength of live listening alongside the record-breaking growth of on-demand on BBC Sounds, underscores how the BBC is continuing to innovate and give licence fee payers a variety and quality of choice that can’t be found anywhere else.”