Rajar Reaction - Bauer, UTV, GMG, TalkSport, Global Absolute

Bauer Media highlighted the figures for dance music station KISS, which recorded its highest ever reach having become a national station in the new year, rising from 3.4m to 4.07m with a 20% year-on-year growth.

Kiss is part of the new Passion Portfolio from Bauer which increased its reach by 21% from 5.5m to 6.6m while the Bauer Place Portfolio, which includes Radio Clyde, Wave 105 and Radio City, increased from 8.3m to 8.8m.

TalkSport also achieved its highest audience since its launch in 1995 with a growth of 37% in weekly reach to 3.25 million, and a rise in weekly listening of 22.2 million (36%).

Moz Dee, talkSPORT’s programme director, said, “This is a very promising start to 2011 and shows that our recent record-breaking figures are not just a flash in the pan, but rather a sign of consistent and significant growth as we continue to win new listeners. I’m very proud of everyone in the programming team, as they have worked so hard to build credibility in sports journalism and made talkSPORT must-listen radio for sports fans.”

Scott Taunton, talkSPORT’s chief executive added: “It’s very pleasing to see our hard work reflected in record audience figures as well as being recognised by the industry. Our investment in quality programming has once again paid clear dividends to our advertisers in the face of increased competition. We remain ambitious about the future and look forward to our exclusive coverage Rugby World Cup in 2011.”

Capital FM saw a combined audience growth of 1.1 million across its stations compared with the previous year.

Ashley Tabor, founder and executive president described the results of the company as ‘breathtaking’

“Weare pleased that the quality of our output throughout the UK is giving listeners what they want, and I’m particularly pleased that the new Capital network has launched so strongly - and that Capital FM is back to Number 1 in London in every measure,” Tabor continued.

Meanwhile, Richard Park, director of broadcasting at Global Radio said: “I’m absolutely thrilled for the teams here at Global who have succeeded in giving the company growth across all our brands- truly something to be proud of and gratifying that the hard work has paid off.”

UTV Media GB’s thirteen local music radio stations including Juice 107.6, 102.3 Wish FM and 107.4 Tower FM saw an increase of 14.5% in reach to 1,239,000 adults.

Calum Macaulay, director of Local Radio for UTV Media, said: “This is great news and reflects a lot of hard work from everyone around the stations. As other groups move towards more networked programming and quasi-national brands we have maintained our commitment to localness and our “Proud to be Local” positioning is gaining cut-through with both our audiences and our advertisers.”

The Absolute Radio Network grew by 31% reach in the last year, with a growth in house of 26%.

Clive Dickens, chief operating officer for Absolute said: “In a week of success that saw us win seven Sony Radio Awards, it is particularly pleasing to see even more good news as the business recovers nearly all of the reported audience losses last quarter. We have continued to invest heavily in marketing this year, kicking off in March with our multi award-nominated national ‘Faces for Radio’ marketing campaign and we expect to continue to see the impact of this in the coming quarters.”

In Scotland, Gavin Bruce, managing director for GMG Radio Scotland issued his delight at the news of around 860,000 listeners tuning into Real Radio, Smooth FM and Rock Radio each week within the country, with Real Radio attracting 654,000 adult listeners alone each week, and Real Radio picking up 654,000 adult listeners.

“I’m absolutely delighted all three brands at GMG Radio Scotland have made positive strides forward. For 30% of all listeners across the Central Belt to be tuning into one of our stations is fantastic and is recognition of our continued effort to provide the very best radio stations in Scotland,” said Bruce.

Meanwhile Bauer Media Scotland claimed to ‘dominate’ central Scotland radio through Radio Clyde and Radio Forth, with a weekly audience of 1.7 million listeners, a reach of 42% of the listening audience.

Forth 1 increased its weekly reach of 299,000, as did Clyde 1 which rose to 579,000. Tay FM also reported in with 130,000 listeners each week, and Radio Borders grew its reach by 61,000 listeners in the last year.

Graham Bryce, managing director of Scotland Radio, Bauer Media, said: “It’s fantastic news that we reach over 1 million listeners in the Central belt every week. Bauer Media Scotland's strategy of focusing on the local market is paying dividends despite a highly competitive market place.

“In particular, the revitalisation of Clyde 1 has been a massive success. Localness and audience engagement is our key focus and is proving the right strategy for audiences and commercial partners alike with 21,000 extra listeners tuning in every week.

“At a time when many other commercial radio stations are turning increasingly to networked content, we’ve made a conscious decision to continue to listen to our audience feedback and as result we remain committed to delivering local content for local listeners. We actively encourage an open dialogue with our listeners to ensure we deliver the most influential and relevant content they want to hear and we’re confident this approach will further increase brand loyalty.

“Our ongoing success can be attributed to our professional teams across the network who have an in-depth understand our local station audiences and connect and interact with them on and off air through multi-platform channels.

“Bauer Media is continuing to lead the radio market with its existing portfolio of established and respected radio stations. We remain focused on creating truly integrated stations that positively entertain, inspire, interact and engage with audiences.”

Bauer Media has two new national commercial radio packages, Bauer Place portfolio and Bauer Passion portfolio. Bauer Media Scotland stations come under the Bauer Place portfolio. The portfolios, designed around Bauer’s personal approach to programming, will enable commercial offerings to be even better understood.

Scottish stations in the Bauer Place portfolio champion local communities and strive to deliver more relevant local programming and to unite listeners in the places they live. Dominating the premier cities and towns across the UK, Bauer Place is big in all the right places, as commercial market leader in 20 of 21 markets, including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Belfast and Southampton.