Happy 34th Birthday for Cool FM as station gets record audience figures
Station celebrates record-breaking audience figures on its birthday! 🎉
Last updated 1st Feb 2024
It is double celebrations at Cool FM this week as the station marks its 34th year on the air by receiving its biggest ever audience figures.
For the past year now, Cool FM has been at Number 1 in the ratings having overtaken BBC Radio Ulster in 2023.
According to the lastest data just released from RAJAR, Cool is once again attracting even more listeners - now reaching 538,000 weekly listeners, meaning a record 35% of the population now listen ever week.
Cool FM launched on 7th February 1990 when only a handful of other stations existed but remarkably over three decades later, the station is flourishing among the most competitive audio landscape in history.
At the helm of Cool FM is Content Directer Stuart Robinson;
“Even among all the new competition we’ve been able to grow Cool rapidly in recent years by embracing the opportunities made possible by digital. When Cool launched in 1990 it was limited to FM coverage only in the Greater Belfast area but in more recent years the rise of DAB radio made it possible for the station to access audiences across all of Northern Ireland”’
We’ve also been an early adapter of technology such as smart speakers and apps that have been a game changer - allowing audiences to access our content at anytime anywhere with complete ease”.
Aside from the changing ways that audiences access our output - at the very heart of Cool’s success is the relationship the station has with its listeners. Our on air and online strategy has never been more locally focused - from local news and sport, festivals, gigs, big prize competitions and presenters who reflect a modern Northern Ireland - Cool FM captures everything that is great about this wee place we all share”.
The latest radio audience figures also show that Cool FM still has the biggest radio show in the country. The Breakfast Show fronted by Pete, Paulo and Rebecca has 310,000 weekly listeners meaning no other radio show in the country can claim to have more people tuning in every week.
Overall Bauer Media Audio NI stations that consist of Downtown Radio, Cool FM, Downtown Country and newest addition Greatest Hits Radio have 798,000 listeners - reaching 51% of the population, meanwhile BBC Radio Ulster / Foyle receives 506,000 listeners.