RAJAR Analysis Q4 2006

A good quarter for commercial radio as a whole with 33.1m adults tuning in every week and higher housewives and ABC1 audiences than ever before. In Scotland there has, as always, been a mix of winners and losers.

Real can do no wrong as they increase their reach and retain their crown of Scotland’s No 1 commercial radio station. GMG now have three stations in their stable in Scotland with Real, the newly launched Rock Radio and Saga 105.2 FM, soon to be rebranded as Smooth. Scotland’s other regional station XFM has not fared so well losing 14,000 listeners quarter on quarter with an overall reach of 294,000. Beat 106’s last Rajar was 376,000 – so clearly GCap have some work to do, particularly in east central Scotland which is where they are losing their listeners. Talk 107 is heading in the right direction with an increase of 11,000 listeners per week (+47.8%) to 34,000 weekly reach. With their changes in programming at the end of 2006 including The Scott Wilson Breakfast Show (ex Forth 2) they will hopefully continue to see their audience increase. Emap have mixed fortunes with Clyde up 2.9% qoq, whilst over in the East , after a promising Q.3 Rajar, Forth has dropped 12.8% in Q.4. Overall EMAP Scotland is down 2% qoy and 3% yoy.