Zoe Ball has lost 780,000 weekly listeners from her Radio 2 breakfast show, according to the latest industry figures from Rajar. The presenter took over from Chris Evans in January after he left the station to join Virgin Radio. In the second quarter of 2019, Ball's figures fell from 9.05 million to 8.27 million, although her show remains the most popular breakfast programme.
Meanwhile, Ken Bruce's mid-morning show on Radio 2 has become the most popular radio programme in the UK, with 8.49 million listeners. Bruce commented: 'After 34 years as a part of the BBC Radio 2 family, I'm astounded that the allure of my daily grumpy musings, coupled with PopMaster, continue to entertain. Many thanks to the long-suffering listeners.'
Elsewhere, new classical music station Scala Radio, whose presenters include Simon Mayo, reached 250,000 listeners. However, this did not dent the popularity of its main commercial rival Classic FM, which increased from 5.3 million in the first quarter to 5.6 million in the second. Country Hits Radio, another major new station, recorded 208,000 listeners in its first three months.
BBC Radio 1's Greg James attracted 5.19 million listeners this quarter, his highest since taking over the breakfast show last August. Nick Ferrari's LBC breakfast show reached a new record audience of 1.4 million, while the station as a whole attracted 2.4 million weekly listeners, its best ever figures. Eddie Mair, who left the BBC last year, added 120,000 listeners to LBC's late afternoon show.
Kisstory reached a new record audience of 2.32 million listeners, becoming the most popular digital-only station in the UK, surpassing BBC 6 Music which dropped to 2.29 million. Roman Kemp increased Capital's breakfast show audience to 3.8 million, the first quarter where his show was broadcast across the whole UK. Chris Evans also saw a slight increase on Virgin Radio, from 1.04 million to 1.11 million listeners.
