Radio Two shedding listeners
Discussion
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-6638...
Looks like people have given their verdict on changes at Radio 2 and moved on. Have to say I never listen to it anymore having been a regular when Chris Evans, Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo were there.
Despite massive losses I can't believe anyone listens to Zoe Ball.
Looks like people have given their verdict on changes at Radio 2 and moved on. Have to say I never listen to it anymore having been a regular when Chris Evans, Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo were there.
Despite massive losses I can't believe anyone listens to Zoe Ball.
As ever Matt Deegan is my go-to for RAJAR figures (since I worked at GCap many years ago)
"Well, the first figures are out and it looks like the power of Ken is pretty strong.
On Greatest Hits Radio the slot’s audience has doubled (since this time last year) giving the Brucester 3m listeners. It’s around an 800k increase on the quarter, but the previous quarter’s increase of 450k is probably down to him too.
Over at Radio 2, listeners for Ken’s slot have dropped, this quarter, by 1.3m. This seemingly has affected the station pretty significantly as its headline total reach figure has dropped by a million from 14.4m to 13.4m.
Whilst Radio 2 says this is “only a 7% drop”, I imagine they’ve been a bit surprised by the scale of it. I know I was, especially as I told the I Paper earlier this week: “I imagine that Radio 2’s headline weekly reach figure won’t really change much. There’s very few listeners that will have entirely abandoned Radio 2 to go to another station.”
My reasoning was that for your headline figure to drop, people have to entirely stop listening to your station and I guessed that I didn’t think many, even if they now listened to Ken on GHR, would abandon Radio 2. This was certainly the case with other high profile defections.
Perhaps after Steve Wright being moved and other musical changes, Ken is the straw that broke the camel’s back. However my hunch is that it isn’t likely to be terminal or even replicated over another quarter. Indeed the shocking headline of ‘loses a million’ is somewhat belied when you realise that Radio 2 retained 84% of the slot’s listeners, and the replacement - Vernon - was only on-air for half the quarter measured.
So if I was looking at this positively I’d say:
It’s only one quarter - it’s the trend you need to keep an eye on
The new show wasn’t measured the entire quarter
Radio 2 fluctuates up and down between -3% and +3% each quarter - and has had quarters that have been up 8% and down 5% fairly recently.
A big change will have promoted lots of trial over this quarter, that doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned Radio 2 for good.
However, saying all of that, it’s still a sizeable loss that’s embarrassing for the station to have to deal with. It also may take some time to rebuild.
It has however hard to be too sad for Radio 2. They’re still, by far, the biggest radio station in the country and have the biggest breakfast show."
https://onaudio.mattdeegan.com/p/and-hes-just-ken
"Well, the first figures are out and it looks like the power of Ken is pretty strong.
On Greatest Hits Radio the slot’s audience has doubled (since this time last year) giving the Brucester 3m listeners. It’s around an 800k increase on the quarter, but the previous quarter’s increase of 450k is probably down to him too.
Over at Radio 2, listeners for Ken’s slot have dropped, this quarter, by 1.3m. This seemingly has affected the station pretty significantly as its headline total reach figure has dropped by a million from 14.4m to 13.4m.
Whilst Radio 2 says this is “only a 7% drop”, I imagine they’ve been a bit surprised by the scale of it. I know I was, especially as I told the I Paper earlier this week: “I imagine that Radio 2’s headline weekly reach figure won’t really change much. There’s very few listeners that will have entirely abandoned Radio 2 to go to another station.”
My reasoning was that for your headline figure to drop, people have to entirely stop listening to your station and I guessed that I didn’t think many, even if they now listened to Ken on GHR, would abandon Radio 2. This was certainly the case with other high profile defections.
Perhaps after Steve Wright being moved and other musical changes, Ken is the straw that broke the camel’s back. However my hunch is that it isn’t likely to be terminal or even replicated over another quarter. Indeed the shocking headline of ‘loses a million’ is somewhat belied when you realise that Radio 2 retained 84% of the slot’s listeners, and the replacement - Vernon - was only on-air for half the quarter measured.
So if I was looking at this positively I’d say:
It’s only one quarter - it’s the trend you need to keep an eye on
The new show wasn’t measured the entire quarter
Radio 2 fluctuates up and down between -3% and +3% each quarter - and has had quarters that have been up 8% and down 5% fairly recently.
A big change will have promoted lots of trial over this quarter, that doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned Radio 2 for good.
However, saying all of that, it’s still a sizeable loss that’s embarrassing for the station to have to deal with. It also may take some time to rebuild.
It has however hard to be too sad for Radio 2. They’re still, by far, the biggest radio station in the country and have the biggest breakfast show."
https://onaudio.mattdeegan.com/p/and-hes-just-ken
Getragdogleg said:
I've totally given up on radio.
I now have playlists on my phone and just listen to that via the car wifi thing Its nice to not be told about bad news and traffic for somewhere miles away, or adverts endlessly if its commercial radio.
This may be a more pertinent problem for radio in general.I now have playlists on my phone and just listen to that via the car wifi thing Its nice to not be told about bad news and traffic for somewhere miles away, or adverts endlessly if its commercial radio.
Nowadays, people have access to Spotify et al and can play what they like - they don't have to sift through inane games, adverts and music they don't like to get to it.
So, much like TV viewing figures are down since the advent of streaming, Radio is clearly going the same way.
R2 is dead as far as I am concerned, dreary, little musical background presenters, who are "celebrities" who can chatter on inanely.
Tried R6 a few weeks back on a couple of long drives. Used to be mostly music, even that was inane prattle.
Not everyone's cup of tea - Planet Rock or Jazz FM are my preferences
Tried R6 a few weeks back on a couple of long drives. Used to be mostly music, even that was inane prattle.
Not everyone's cup of tea - Planet Rock or Jazz FM are my preferences
This will not matter to the BBC as they don’t have to sell advertising.
To my tastes it has lost its way and as soon as Vine comes on with another banal segment asking people to ring in and b
h for their moment of game I switched off before they cocked everything up.
I am sure they will survive without me
To my tastes it has lost its way and as soon as Vine comes on with another banal segment asking people to ring in and b
h for their moment of game I switched off before they cocked everything up.I am sure they will survive without me
Muzzer79 said:
It'll probably be temporary.
I really don't think so. Radio as a format is in decline because of on-demand music, podcasts and streaming and there really isn't a new audience for it, so it is all now about stations chasing the same dwindling number of listeners.Muzzer79 said:
But the replacements need time to build up their following.
See above - they are just competing for the same people who still think radio is a thing. Once those people have shifted allegiance to another station because their preferred presenter has moved then they are hardly going to come back, and the replacement 'audience' is already on Spotify (other music streaming services are available). Some established former radio shows have in fact completely made the jump to streaming only, for example Kermode and Mayo's film reviews that started on Radio 1, ended its broadcast life on Radio 5 Live and is now a stand-alone podcast.spaximus said:
This will not matter to the BBC as they don’t have to sell advertising.
To my tastes it has lost its way and as soon as Vine comes on with another banal segment asking people to ring in and bh for their moment of game I switched off before they cocked everything up.
I am sure they will survive without me
I don't disagree with you, but JV has been doing that slot for 20 years so they must have lost their way a while ago!To my tastes it has lost its way and as soon as Vine comes on with another banal segment asking people to ring in and b
h for their moment of game I switched off before they cocked everything up.I am sure they will survive without me
Ah, the good old days of radio. Moyles on the way to work, James Obrien mid-morning, Scott Mills in the afternoon, and then Marc and Lard on the way home. For the last 16 years as a stay-at-home dad its been, A bit of R1 then R2 when out and about, plus Radio Kent but now it's Capital Dance and Mr Reddit podcast/R/slash on youtube.
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