Radio stations make history with landmark NI listening figures

The success of local radio continues with the latest set of official RAJAR figures revealing record listenership and a significant milestone for Northern Ireland’s leading radio group, Bauer Media.

Figures released today show that Downtown and Cool FM along with sister station, Downtown Country, have reached the highest listening figures in Northern Ireland’s radio broadcasting history – with 703,000 now tuning into the trio of stations every week.

Reaching almost half of the province’s adult population across the three stations, Downtown and Downtown Country recorded significant yearly increases - while Cool FM achieved its biggest audience in its 27-year history with a reach of 473,000 weekly listeners, thanks to an extended footprint that now includes all of Northern Ireland.

These latest results position Cool FM as the province’s No. 1 commercial radio station, followed by Downtown with 268,000 listeners every week. In addition, the DAB-only station, Downtown Country, is pulling in 103,000 weekly listeners.

Station Managing Director, Mark Mahaffy, said it was a memorable day for everyone associated with Downtown and Cool FM:

“It really is quite an incredible achievement,” he said. “These figures are unprecedented in broadcasting in Northern Ireland, and it is great news for radio overall and particularly for our parent company, Bauer Media.

“We’re proud to be at the forefront of an exceptional growth in radio listenership, driven by our strategic focus on digital radio. Cool FM, thanks to an extended NI footprint including digital, is now pushing towards an audience just short of half a million listeners.”

“This follows on from our successful launch of Downtown Country, a digital-only station now with 103,000 listeners - the highest listenership of over 50 digital stations in Northern Ireland. This focus on digital has pushed us to 703,000 weekly listeners across the stations, giving the broadcaster almost 200,000 more listeners than the publicly-funded BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle. Meanwhile, Downtown Radio, which is available on both FM and DAB, has also enjoyed a significant yearly increase in audience figures with the second highest local commercial audience of 268,000.”

Stuart Robinson, Head of Programming, added: “This is an achievement that cannot be underestimated. In all of my years in broadcasting I have not seen anything like it – digital radio is on the up, and Bauer Media is driving audience levels to unprecedented heights.”

• The above figures relate to RAJAR, Q1, 2017, Bauer Northern Ireland TSA - with Cool FM now measured fully within this TSA.