The national station Boom Radio, which caters to older listeners who lost faith in Radio 2 following Ken Bruce’s resignation, has seen a twofold increase in listenership, according to recent data.
According to audience organization Rajar, Boom, which persuaded veteran DJs like David Hamilton to come out of retirement, now draws 635,000 listeners every week.
Its ascent became evident when statistics showed that Radio 2’s audience had decreased by 140,000 in a single year.
Still the UK’s most popular station with 14.46m listeners, Radio 2 is focusing on “mood mums” – 30-something women who favour 90s dance music over classic hits from the 60s and 70s.
Boom bosses said the “golden oldie” digital station, launched during the pandemic and broadcast from the presenters’ garden sheds, has an estimated audience of one million people every month.
With DJs including Pete Murray, aged 97, Boom is benefiting from a Radio 2 schedule overhaul in a bid to attract younger listeners. Steve Wright lost his afternoon show, Bruce quit for commercial rival Greatest Hits Radio, whilst Vanessa Feltz and Craig Charles also left.
Hamilton, 84, explained Boom’s success at the station’s recent second birthday party: “We have torn up all the rules of being broadcasting giants. Narrow casting, playing the same small group of records over and over again because a panel says they’re safe? We say, ‘Bollocks!’ Boom’s audience has grown from 219,000 to 635,000 listeners.
Rajar’s final figures for Bruce’s Radio 2 slot show that the audience bounced back slightly after a 400,000 year-on-year decline.
The show had an average of 8.28m weekly listeners, up from 8.21m last quarter – however, one month of the reporting period included Gary Davies taking over as temporary host.
Industry insiders said there was little to be read into Bruce’s final BBC numbers. “You could say that Gary Davies kept the show going after Ken’s departure,” one said.
“It’s impossible to conclude much about either about Ken or Gary based on the Rajar numbers as it’s a weekly average over three months – and they both were on air for sizeable chunks.”
The first numbers for Bruce’s new GHR morning show, and his Radio 2 replacement Vernon Kay, will feature in the next quarterly Rajar figures.
With public awareness boosted by the announcement that Bruce would be joining in April, GHR had a record audience reach of 5.3 million, up 26.9 per cent over the year. Simon Mayo, another Radio 2 refugee, added half a million listeners to his Drivetime show.
BBC journalists have voted to take industrial action next month over cuts to local services which will see some programming shared across regional stations. An exodus of local radio presenters is currently under way under redundancy plans after an interview process compared to The Hunger Games.
