The Media in Figures: Radio listening figures, Scottish stations

THE latest radio listening figures have revealed that BBC Radio Scotland has experienced a second, successive quarterly decrease on a year previously.

According to auditing authority, RAJAR, the station saw its ‘reach’ fall by five per cent from the third quarter of last year to the same period this year.

In other words, an average reach of 948,000 decreased over the 12 months to an average 901,000.

Between Q2 2015 and Q2 2016, the station had seen its reach fall by 1.3 per cent.

‘Reach’ is defined as an adult, aged at least 15, having tuned into a station for at least five minutes during an average week.

The reach figures in full are as follows, for Q3 2015-Q3 2016 (in brackets Q2 2015-Q2 2016)

BBC Scotland down five per cent (down 1.3 per cent)

Radio Borders down 3.6 per cent (no change)

Capital Scotland up 5.3 per cent (up 9.2 per cent)

Central FM down seven per cent (down 3.8 per cent)

Clyde 1 up 14.6 per cent (up 10.3 per cent)

Clyde 2 up 10.2 per cent (down 3.1 per cent)

Forth 1 down 6.3 per cent (up seven per cent)

Forth 2 down 26.4 per cent (down 31.8 per cent)

Heart Scotland (formerly Real Radio Scotland) down 11.8 per cent (down 1.9 per cent)

Kingdom FM down 25.4 per cent (down ten per cent)

Moray Firth Radio up 5.1 per cent (up 0.9 per cent)

Northsound 1 down 16 per cent (down 5.1 per cent)

Northsound 2 down 25.7 per cent (down 18.9 per cent)

Original 106 down 19.5 per cent (up 5.3 per cent)

Smooth Radio Glasgow up 12.3 per cent (up two per cent)

Tay FM down 10.1 per cent (down 8.8 per cent)

Tay 2 (formerly Tay AM) down 26.9 per cent (down 27.3 per cent)

Wave 102 down 16.7 per cent (down 13 per cent)

West Sound up 3.2 per cent (down 6.3 per cent)

As yet, there are no comparison figures for relatively recently-launched third stations by Clyde, Forth and Tay.

Source: RAJAR, October 27 2016.