Today FM and RTÉ have emerged as the major winners in the latest set of radio listenership figures produced by JNLR and MRBI.
Based on figures for the whole of 2002, RTÉ's share of the national audience (53 per cent) has remained unchanged, despite an increase in competition, particularly in Dublin and from local stations.
Today FM managed to increase its national adult audience during this period by two percentage points (to 17 per cent), with The Last Word and Ian Dempsey's Breakfast Show showing significant increases.
There were also significant changes in RTÉ during the year, with Liveline, presented by Joe Duffy, passing out Today with Pat Kenny for the first time.
Based on "listened yesterday" figures for 2002 (i.e. the number of people who heard a given programme) Joe Duffy's show managed to attract 365,000 listeners, compared to 352,000 for Today with Pat Kenny. The Liveline show is now the fourth most popular programme on radio, with Today with Pat Kenny falling back into fifth place.
Among RTÉ's broadcasters, Joe Duffy's appeal increased considerably during 2002, with listenership rising by 31,000 on figures for January to December 2001.
The Gerry Ryan Show used to be the second most popular radio programme in the State, but its loss of 7,000 listeners meant it fell back to third place this time.
The Marian Finucane Show took second position this time because of a small gain of 2,000. The No 1 show was Morning Ireland, which gained 27,000 listeners to leave it with a "listened yesterday" audience of 512,000.
The managing director of RTÉ Radio, Mr Adrian Moynes, said: "There are 48 licensed radio services in this country and all of them compete with RTÉ to some extent". As a result, it was "a remarkable achievement for RTÉ to enjoy such a stable listenership. All of our primetime programmes have, year on year, maintained or increased their percentages".
For the first time Ian Dempsey's Breakfast Show made it into the top 10, with RTÉ's drivetime show, Five Seven Live, and The John Creedon Show dropping out of the top 10.
Stations gave differing accounts of the figures yesterday, but most conceded that the big losers were NewsTalk 106 in Dublin, which managed only a 2 per cent listenership figure in the capital. While there was general satisfaction in RTÉ at the figures, the success of Today FM was also acknowledged.
The Last Word, hosted during 2002 by Eamon Dunphy, was up 31,000 to 192,000, a 19 per cent increase. The station's evening music programme, Pet Sounds, presented by Tom Dunne, enjoyed an increase of 12 per cent.
In the Dublin market 98FM and FM104, longtime rivals, both recorded a "listened yesterday" figure of 20 per cent. Mr Dermot Hanrahan of FM104 said he was disappointed the two had drawn level, but FM104's breakfast show, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, remained the most popular such programme in Dublin.
Another new arrival to the Dublin radio scene, Spin FM, said it was happy with its performance. After eight months on air, Spin was Dublin's fastest-growing radio station, with a "listened yesterday" of 5 per cent among adults and 10 per cent among 15 to 34-year-olds.
Lite FM, which was recently sold to UTV, performed strongly. It increased its audience in its target 35-to-54 age group by 17 per cent.
For many local stations 2002 was a successful year.
Cork's newest station, Red FM, showed strong listenership increases, with a 42 per cent "listened yesterday" result in its target 15 to 34-year-old market.This was an increase of 20 per cent on the first six months of 2002. The figures also revealed that Red FM is listened to by 21 per cent of all adults in the franchise area. This was a 31 per cent increase on figures for January to June of last year. Cork's 96FM also claimed to be the leader in that market. Its managing director, Mr Ronan McManamy, said 57 per cent of Cork adults tuned in on a daily basis.