Capital retains London breakfast leadership

95.8 Capital FM's breakfast show held on to the prized mantle of most popular London breakfast radio show in Q4 2008, edging towards the one million listener mark, according to today's Rajar figures. However, Bauer Radio's Magic 105.4 remains the most listened to station in London overall - a position it has held for eight consecutive quarters.


Magic 105.4 posted an average weekly reach of 1.99m in the last quarter of 2008, up 5.9% on the previous quarter and up 1.9% year on year. It scooped a 6% share of the London audience.

Mark Story, managing director of national brands at Bauer Media, told Media Week: "We are thrilled with Magic's performance, holding the top spot in London for the last two years - eight consecutive quarters. Our breakfast shows in London (Magic and Kiss) have both performed well and we hope to build on this. We believe our localness is the core driver for people to listen to our stations."

Global Radio-owned 95.8 Capital FM's breakfast show was up from 942,000 listeners in Q4 2007 to 981,000 in Q4 2008. Another Global Radio station, Heart 106.2, maintained its second position in the London breakfast sector with 868,000 listeners, up 100,000 from the previous quarter.

Magic 105.4's breakfast show, whose presenter Neil Fox has just signed a new deal until 2012, was in at third place with 813,000 listeners, which was flat on the year but up 80,000 on the previous quarter.

Overall, Global Radio's Heart 106.2 came in second to Magic as the most listened to station in the capital with 1.79m listeners, occupying 5% share of the London audience. Its audience was up marginally on the quarter but down 2.6% year on year.

95.8 Capital came in third with 1.62 million listeners, up 7.1% year on year, with a 4.8% share of the London market. Kiss held on to its fourth position with 1.58m listeners, up 3.1% on the quarter and up 10.5% year on year.

Speech radio station LBC 97.3 also retained its position, coming in fifth with 630,000 listeners down 2.6% on the quarter and down 1.9% year on year. The Global Radio-owned station accounted for a 3.6% share of the capital's market