Last Word tops drivetime radio

Today FM's T he Last Word programme has become the most listened to drivetime programme in Ireland according to the latest listenership…

Today FM's T he Last Wordprogramme has become the most listened to drivetime programme in Ireland according to the latest listenership figures released today.

The Last Word, presented by former Sunday Tribuneeditor, Matt Cooper, had 215,000 listeners in 2007 while RTE Radio One's Drivetime, presented by Mary Wilson, had 207,000 listeners. Newstalk's the Right Hook, presented by George Hook, had a listened yesterday figure of 94,000.

Ian Dempsey on Today FM remained at number 1 for the breakfast slot with 243,000 listeners.

RTE Radio One saw growth in news and current affairs with Morning Irelandup 4,000 to 430,000, Today with Pat Kennyup 5,000 to 284,000, the News at Oneup 4,000 to 299,000, Saturday Viewup 9,000 to 185,000.

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There was also growth for Marian Finucane up 12,000 each Saturday to 302,000, Livelineup 12,000 to 362,000, Mooney up 17,000 to 177,000 and Ronan Collins up 6,000 to 183,000.

Overall, RTE Radio One had the most market share with 21.6 per cent up slightly by 0.4 per cent. Today FM retained its market share of 12.5 per cent while 2FM was up 0.1 per cent at 12.8 per cent. Newstalk and Lyric FM had a market share of 3.4 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.

The top five local radio stations outside Dublin for market share were: Highland Radio, Mid West Radio, Shannonside/Northern Sound, Tipp FM and WLR in Waterford.

FM 104 remains top in Dublin's local stations with a market share of 12.4 per cent while it's main rival, 98FM, has a market share of 10.7 per cent. Q102 had a market share of 6.6 per cent, followed by Spin1038 (5.7 per cent) and Dublin's Country Mix (2.5 per cent).