JNLR Radio Numbers: Ryan Tubridy and Morning Ireland are among the biggest losers as RTÉ Radio One suffers a drop in listenership across all flagship shows

RTÉ Radio One has suffered listener losses on all of its flagship shows, new figures show.

All of its weekday programs have lost thousands of listeners, according to the latest figures from Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR), while its sister station 2FM has seen some growth.

The drop in listeners is significant compared to the last JNLR released on November 10th.

Tomorrow Ireland lost 17,000 listens from the previous book and is now at 433,000, while Ryan Tubridy has lost 13,000 listens and is now at 331,000.

Today with Claire Byrne There are 10,000 minuses in the most recent survey with 321,000 listeners news at one has 310,000 – down from 15,000.

Ronan Collins’ 12pm music show lost 11,000 and is now at 222,000. The veteran broadcaster stepped down from the show just before Christmas and it is now hosted by Louise Duffy.

Even Joe Duffy’s live line The program suffered a slump, losing 11,000 listeners to 310,000 now.

Ray D’Arcy’s afternoon program appears to have leveled out at 177,000 listeners – down by just 2,000.

The current evening program of the station, driving timeco-hosted by Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra, lost 4,000 listeners and is now at 208,000.

RTÉ Radio 1 chief Peter Woods said he expects listenership to fall and that the national broadcaster may have to “go back to basics”.

“Some of what we’re seeing here is comparable to the numbers we had pre-Covid, it looks like we’re back in that range,” he told Independent.ie.

“Audience for programs like Claire Byrne, Ryan And Tomorrow Irelandthey are still huge numbers anyway.

“I was expecting a drop, I think part of that is dissatisfaction with news in general. We also know from the underlying numbers that our 20-45 year olds are way up in that demographic, so a lot of things are happening.

“That’s probably the future, and what might happen is that the people we would have seen as our traditional listeners are listening less.

“If something like that happens we have to look at everything and we will, maybe we have to go back to basics.”

RTÉ 2FMs breakfast showhosted by Doireann Garrihy, Donncha O’Callaghan and Carl Mullan, saw audience numbers surge to 129,000, a jump of 5,000.

Jennifer Zamparelli’s show now stands at 134,000, up from 3,000 listeners, while Tracy Clifford has lost 4,000 and is at 116,000. The 2 Johnnies slot is at 119,000 – down from 3,000.

RTÉ 2FM chief Dan Healy welcomed the success of the breakfast slot and is confident the station will “win the morning”.

Mr Healy said he believes 2FM is “very well positioned” for the year ahead.

“Breakfast going on the air for two years in May, we’re very pleased with the level of consistency this show has. What they have accomplished over the past few months is truly remarkable,” he told Independent.ie.

“They have a very good producer called Grace, it’s a really strong show and we’re seeing significant growth.

“Sometimes friendships can be made up on air, they have on-air chemistry but no off-air, these three are absolute friends.

“You can hear it and Grace is one of the four and they’re as close as can be. It’s a really strong team and they fly with it. We have a thing on the radio that says you have to win the morning to win the day.

“We have a breakfast show now that we think is going to be quite a while, so that’s very exciting for everyone here.”

Today, FM is the only station that has seen listenership growth across all of its shows.

The Breakfast Show by Ian Dempsey sits at 203,000 listeners, up 4,000, while Pamela Joyce, who recently celebrated a year of lunch breaks, welcomed 4,000 new listeners in the latest poll, taking her audience to 134,000.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper now has an audience of 172,000 riders, an increase of 8,000.

Mr Cooper said: “Given how people’s work patterns have changed so much in 2022, we’re thrilled that apparently all the new listeners we’ve gained from being at home during Covid are on the return to stayed with us for their jobs.

“It shows that radio can be enjoyed anywhere.”

In the meantime Dermot & David continue to grow with an increase of 9,000 and bring their audience to 207,000.

The duo said they don’t take themselves too seriously, but are “serious about keeping our audiences happy.”

“We couldn’t be happier with the numbers today. It’s always been a pleasure to see so many people joining us and enjoying spending time with us,” they said.

Since joining Afternoon on Today FM just 12 months ago, the latest figures show that the Ray Foley Show now has 160,000 listeners, up from 11,000 on Buch.

There was a mixed result for Newstalk either The Pat Kenny Show meanwhile down 3,000 to 174,000 Live at noon is down 2,000 to 106,000.

Newstalk Breakfast with Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman gained 5,000 listeners to bring the show to 152,000, an all-time high for this slot Moncrieff added 6,000 listeners to reach 96,000. The Hard Shoulder has increased by 3,000 to 159,000.