The head of RTE Radio 1 said he will be holding crunch talks today as the station suffered another dip in listeners - as Today FM celebrates a surge in listenership.
The latest Joint National Listenership Research has revealed another plummet in audiences tuning out of the RTE station, with Morning Ireland and the News at One seeing the biggest drop.
Morning Ireland has lost 18,000 listeners, while the News At One lost 15,000, according to the latest figures released today.
READ MORE - RTE's Liveline with Joe Duffy was most complained about show in Ireland last year
Peter Woods, Head of RTE Radio 1, admitted he is worried about the latest data.
He said: "Yeah, I am worried about this.
"Some of this is definitely still an adjustment and we’ve done comparisons in our audiences. There is an adjustment to pre-Covid. If you left radio out of this and you just looked at the wider universal appetite for news and current affairs, I think that is affected as well.
"Audiences have been down recently on what were historic highs. Most of these programmes we’re looking at here have been on historic highs as well and are down off that."
He said audiences appear to prefer to listen to segments about how to cope with the cost-of-living crisis as opposed to coverage on homelessness and anti-migrant protests.
"The single items that we would have in programmes at the minute are the ones that tell people how to cope with their electricity bills or their gas bills. They are the single items that are streaming," he explained.
"If you were looking at a way of making programmes again, you would probably look at making programmes like that.
"Beyond that when people are hearing – in general terms – talking about protests against people coming into the country and homelessness and all those sort of stories, that maybe they are not as drawn to listening to them or watching them as they might have done a few years ago."
The JNLR figures released show Ryan Tubridy lost 13,000 listeners with 331,000 tuning in, while Claire Byrne lost 10,000 listeners, leaving 321,000 tuning in.
As many as 10,000 people tuned out of Ronan Collins' midday show before he departed the station to go to RTE Gold. 222,000 are now tuning into the slot, hosted by Louise Duffy.
Ray D’Arcy has 177,000 people tuning into his afternoon show – a 2,000 drop from his last quarter.
Meanwhile, Drivetime has 208,000 listening in, a drop of 4,000 from last year’s book, while Miriam O'Callaghan suffered a 14,000 drop to her Sunday show. She now has 317,000.
Brendan O'Connor's Saturday programme has lost 6,000 listeners, with 338,000 tuning in, while his Sunday show has lost 16,000 listeners. He now has 329,000 tuning in to that.
Peter said a meeting will be held at lunchtime today to discuss the figures and what needs to be done to gain back audiences.
He said: "We have to look at what we’re putting out.
"We’ve a meeting at lunchtime and after that we will have a briefing from Audience Insights but a lot of things will be put on the table and we’ll work through all of this with individual teams as well and we'll go back and look at every segment of the programme.
"Overall, in the scheme of things our lighter programmes and our music programmes are very steady. It’s the current affairs and news programmes that we would be more worried about, but the same message goes to everybody."
Peter also reacted to Joe Duffy’s Liveline being the most complained about show last year to the broadcasting authority although none of the gripes made by angry listeners have so far been upheld.
There were 91 total complaints to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) in 2022, with RTÉ radio and television the subject of more than two-thirds of them, or 63 in total.
He said: "The level of scrutiny and the level of expectation here is massive. Liveline is phenomenal. I worked on it myself… For Liveline, it is a matter of pride. The pride is that people care enough about us to complain but the real point is none of those complaints were upheld."
But over at Today FM, the station was celebrating more listeners across all their stations.
Ian Dempsey now has 203,000 tuning in – an increase in 4,000 listeners, while Dermot and Dave now have 9,000 listeners bringing them to 207,000. Pamela Joyce was up by 4,000 to 134,000 listeners.
Dermot & Dave said: "We couldn’t be happier with the figures today. It’s always been a pleasure to see so many people join us and enjoy spending time with us. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious about keeping our audience happy."
And Ray Foley has 11,000 extra listeners tuning in, giving him a total of 160,000 listeners, while Matt Cooper’s The Last Word saw an 8,000 increase to 172,000 listeners.
Matt said: "Given that so much changed in people's work patterns during 2022 we're thrilled that it seems that all of the new listeners we gained when they were at home during Covid seem to have stuck with us on the return to the workplace. It shows that radio can be enjoyed wherever you are"
Elsewhere at Newstalk, 3,000 listeners turned off Pat Kenny as he now has 174,000 listeners, while Newstalk Breakfast gained 10,000 listeners. The show now has 157,000 tuning in.
Meanwhile at 2FM, boss Dan Healy was celebrating after his station saw steady gains in the latest quarter.
2FM breakfast with Doireann, Carl and Donncha saw a 5,000 increase to 129,000 listeners, while Jennifer Zamparelli saw a 3,000 jump to 134,000 listeners.
But Tracey Clifford and the 2 Johnnies saw a 4,000 and 3,000 loss respectively, with 116,000 and 119,000 listeners tuning in.
Dan said: "I have to say this is an average book. We’ve a breakfast show that is going very well. Jennifer Zamparelli - I was worried about this morning when I woke, and she recovered what she lost. There were deep losses in the last book. The 2 Johnnies are going well.
"People still have the need for live," he added.
Losses and gains
RTE Radio 1
- Morning Ireland – 433,000 down 18,000
- Ryan Tubridy – 331,000 down 13,000
- Today with Claire Byrne – 321,000 down 10,000
- Ronan Collins – 222,000 down 10,000
- News at One – 310,000 down 15,000
- Liveline – 310,000 down 11,000
- Ray D’Arcy – 177,000 down 2,000
- Drivetime – 208,000 down 4,000
- Brendan O’Connor (SAT) – 338,000 down 6,000
- Brendan O’Connor (SUN) 329,000 down 16,000
- Sunday with Miriam O’Callaghan: 317,000 down 14,000
2FM
- Breakfast on 2FM – 129,000 up 5,000
- Jennifer Zamparelli – 134,0000 up 3,000
- Tracey Clifford – 116,000 down 4,000
- The 2 Johnnies – 119,000 down 3,000
Today FM
- Ian Dempsey – 203,000 up 4,000
- Dermot and Dave – 207,000 up 9,000
- Pamela Joyce – 134,000 up 4,000
- Ray Foley – 160,000 up 11,000
- The Last Word – 172,000 up 8,000
Newstalk
- Pat Kenny – 174,000 down 3,000
- Newstalk Breakfast – 157,000 up 10,000
- The Hard Shoulder – 159,000 up 3,000
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