Media&Marketing: Next Monday's JNLR figures will be approached with some trepidation by radio stations across the State. With overall radio listenership falling, there are likely to be few gainers and the market share of several stations could fall sharply.
At the top of the list will be UTV-owned Lite FM. The Dublin radio station aimed at the over-35s was purchased in December 2002 for €14 million.
The purchase price was regarded as high at the time but the subsequent performance of the station makes the valuation look even steeper.
At the time, UTV chief executive Mr John McCann said the purchase would "enhance the scope and presence" of UTV's interests in the Republic.
UTV has demanded changes and a rebranding announcement is expected today. A new name, Q102, will be used in future.
Because of legal requirements, Lite is precluded from altering its format in any radical way and this may leave local management hamstrung. Sources suggested yesterday that, while changes are on the way, the emphasis on over-35s would continue.
As Lite staff and management will be braced for bad news in the JNLRs, the information is, after all, historical and 2004 could still provide an upturn.
In the last set of JNLR figures, Lite had an 8 per cent listenership figure in Dublin. The station's nightmare result on Monday would be for this to slip back to a 4 per cent listenership figure, which is where Lyric FM is currently perched. Below that in the last figures were NewsTalk, Country 106 and Spin, all on 3 per cent.
At the time of its sale to UTV, Lite FM founder and chief executive Mr Martin Block, his brother Howard and general manager Mr Scott Williams all received sizeable payouts from the transaction. However, since then it has been a tale of woe.
Nobody is sure where the listeners have gone, although the small incremental growth of Country and NewsTalk has done some damage at the margins.
More widely, the JNLRs will also provide an insight into how Today FM is performing. Last time it held its position nationally and its main prime brands - Ian Dempsey and Ray D'Arcy - have been performing strongly. But the influential evening slot, the Last Word, presents a more complex challenge.
In the last set of figures the programme's ratings dropped 8 per cent, but host Matt Cooper will be hoping this is not repeated in next week's figures.
NewsTalk is talking tough about this slot and hopes to report that George Hook's enhanced profile via the Rugby World Cup has provided a boost for the Right Hook.
For RTÉ Radio, the stakes are also high. Montrose continues to reverberate with talk of a shake-up at RTÉ Radio One, with Marian Finucane often mentioned as a possible casualty in prime time. Despite general goodwill towards her show among advertisers, some people believe that RTÉ Radio managers Ms Eithne Hand and Mr Adrian Moynes will move Gerry Ryan or someone else into the RTÉ Radio One schedule.
So far this has not happened, and it has been strenuously denied by RTÉ. Ms Finucane's programme has changed slightly in the past few weeks and it will be interesting to see if losses in recent JNLRs have been reversed.
Dedicated to Kildare
Meanwhile, horse trainer Mr Dermot Weld is trying his hand at the radio business.
He has a shareholding in the first dedicated station for Kildare, K FM. Mr Weld has a 3 per cent stake in the station. There are 18 other shareholders including East Coast Radio and the Midlands radio group.
The rest are local Kildare people, including Mr Noel Shannon, former head of news at Today FM; Mr Glenn Ryan, the Kildare GAA football player; and Ms Anna May McHugh, managing director of the National Ploughing Association.
The station was launched last Sunday, which is ironically St Bridget's Day. The station rushed to point out that she is the county's patron saint.
Previously, Kildare and Carlow were served by the one station, but K FM has the whole of Kildare to itself.
TV3 celebrities
TV3 was yesterday toasting the success of I Am A celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. The station said it had enjoyed a "phenomenal start" to the new year with the ongoing success of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, which had already eclipsed programmes such as Friends and ER with its highest viewing audience to date of 375,000 and 53 per cent of the population watching.
TV3 director of programming Mr Matthew Salway said the station was bringing the show, starring Jordan and other "celebrities", to a whole new audience with last year's figures trebled by TV3.
However, ad agency AFA O'Meara concluded that RTÉ had not lost out too much by missing out on Jordan and friends. It pointed out that the final episode of RTÉ 1's Proof was watched by 464,000 adults, down 59,000 from the previous week. However, this was still some way ahead of TV3's version of I Am A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.
In the UK, however, the ITV1 version attracted 40 per cent of viewers, which translates into nearly 10 million UK adults.
TV3 is now hoping that the final series of Sex and the City can also provide a massive ratings boost in the normally lean month of February.
