Global Radio-owned station's audience rises almost 30% year on year, as Capital holds on to London ratings crown
Nick Clegg's weekly phone-in has helped London's LBC radio station top 1 million weekly listeners for the first time, according to the latest official figures.
The deputy prime minister made radio history when he agreed to a regular grilling from presenter Nick Ferrari and LBC listeners in January.
And the move appears to have paid off for the Global Radio-owned station, which saw its average weekly audience rise 29.4% compared with the three months from April 2012 to 1 million, according to Rajar figures published on Thursday.
The 40-year-old talk station, which bills itself as "London's biggest conversation", increased its share of the capital's radio market to 4.9% after Clegg took to the airwaves seven months ago. Ferrari has added 129,000 average weekly listeners to his breakfast show over the past year, to 659,000.
Clegg's move even inspired the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to get behind the LBC microphone with his own 45-minute talkshow that debuted on 2 July.
James Rea, the managing editor of LBC, said: "To scale new heights for LBC 97.3 in its 40th year is a spectacular performance and testament to the brilliant team we have.
"Under Global Radio, the station is going from strength to strength with agenda-setting programmes such as Call Clegg and Ask Boris which puts us in a solid position for the next 40 years."
LBC's Global sister station, Capital, held on to the London radio ratings crown with an average of 2.2 million weekly listeners.
Capital recorded a 5.6% rise in its weekly audience compared with the second quarter of 2012, as its market share increased to 4.6%. The station's breakfast slot, fronted by Dave Berry and Lisa Snowden, was the most popular early-morning show in London.
Kiss 100 was the second biggest station in the capital based on average weekly audience, breaking the 2 million listener barrier thanks to a 15.7% audience leap on last year. The Bauer Media-owner station added nearly 400,000 listeners as its share of the London radio market rose to 5.2%.
Andy Roberts, group programming director of Kiss, said: "From the Kiss Breakfast show right through the schedule we're making sure the presenters' content is relevant, fun and engaging and we've worked hard aspects of the brand such as our social media to provide content to our audience that they can hear, see and share. We spend a long time on music to make sure we're playing the right stuff and we listen to the audience all the time in terms of what they want to hear."
Another Global station, Heart London, increased its average number of weekly listeners to 1.9 million as its market share rose to 5.2%. Breakfast hosts Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton were credited with helping the 10% year-on-year audience rise.
Bauer's Magic 105.4 was leapfrogged by both Heart and Kiss 100 in the last quarter as it fell to fourth place among the commercial stations in London, having occupied the top spot as recently as the final quarter of 2012.
Magic had a weekly audience of 1.8 million in the second quarter, down 3.9% compared with the same period last year. Its share of the market slipped to 5%.
The London audience of Absolute Radio – bought by Bauer last week – rose 2.6% year on year, to an average of 999,000 weekly listeners, a 3.2% share of the market.
Global's Gold London was the only mainstream station in the capital to report a double-digit drop in its audience compared with the second quarter last year, as average weekly listeners fell 17.3% to 273,000.
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Nick Clegg's weekly phone-in has helped London's LBC radio station top 1 million weekly listeners for the first time, according to the latest official figures.
The deputy prime minister made radio history when he agreed to a regular grilling from presenter Nick Ferrari and LBC listeners in January.
And the move appears to have paid off for the Global Radio-owned station, which saw its average weekly audience rise 29.4% compared with the three months from April 2012 to 1 million, according to Rajar figures published on Thursday.
The 40-year-old talk station, which bills itself as "London's biggest conversation", increased its share of the capital's radio market to 4.9% after Clegg took to the airwaves seven months ago. Ferrari has added 129,000 average weekly listeners to his breakfast show over the past year, to 659,000.
Clegg's move even inspired the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to get behind the LBC microphone with his own 45-minute talkshow that debuted on 2 July.
James Rea, the managing editor of LBC, said: "To scale new heights for LBC 97.3 in its 40th year is a spectacular performance and testament to the brilliant team we have.
"Under Global Radio, the station is going from strength to strength with agenda-setting programmes such as Call Clegg and Ask Boris which puts us in a solid position for the next 40 years."
LBC's Global sister station, Capital, held on to the London radio ratings crown with an average of 2.2 million weekly listeners.
Capital recorded a 5.6% rise in its weekly audience compared with the second quarter of 2012, as its market share increased to 4.6%. The station's breakfast slot, fronted by Dave Berry and Lisa Snowden, was the most popular early-morning show in London.
Kiss 100 was the second biggest station in the capital based on average weekly audience, breaking the 2 million listener barrier thanks to a 15.7% audience leap on last year. The Bauer Media-owner station added nearly 400,000 listeners as its share of the London radio market rose to 5.2%.
Andy Roberts, group programming director of Kiss, said: "From the Kiss Breakfast show right through the schedule we're making sure the presenters' content is relevant, fun and engaging and we've worked hard aspects of the brand such as our social media to provide content to our audience that they can hear, see and share. We spend a long time on music to make sure we're playing the right stuff and we listen to the audience all the time in terms of what they want to hear."
Another Global station, Heart London, increased its average number of weekly listeners to 1.9 million as its market share rose to 5.2%. Breakfast hosts Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton were credited with helping the 10% year-on-year audience rise.
Bauer's Magic 105.4 was leapfrogged by both Heart and Kiss 100 in the last quarter as it fell to fourth place among the commercial stations in London, having occupied the top spot as recently as the final quarter of 2012.
Magic had a weekly audience of 1.8 million in the second quarter, down 3.9% compared with the same period last year. Its share of the market slipped to 5%.
The London audience of Absolute Radio – bought by Bauer last week – rose 2.6% year on year, to an average of 999,000 weekly listeners, a 3.2% share of the market.
Global's Gold London was the only mainstream station in the capital to report a double-digit drop in its audience compared with the second quarter last year, as average weekly listeners fell 17.3% to 273,000.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@guardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.