Total Dublin listenership dipped very marginally from 819,000 to 817,000 and this last figure represents 81% of the capital tuning into radio on a daily basis. The dominant station in the capital is RTE1 with a 28% reach down slightly from last year. Still making inroads into that figure is FM104 in second place at a 22% reach or 225,000 people.
From there is a bit of a gap to third with Spin 1038 at 131,000 having dropped 18% year on year. Lyric and Nova both suffered large falls in this survey losing 33% and 23% respectively. However, they are coming from a low base so their swings can be very pronounced. Spin stalemate, 98FM, more or less collapsed in the survey moving from 101,000 to 87,000 and 9%. It’s a 23% drop in listeners over the twelve months and it moves the station from the 5th largest station in Dublin to the 6th. Given that in the 10_2 survey it was the third largest station in the capital, it is an alarming drop.
| Station | 13_2 | 13_22 | 12_2 | 12_22 | 13 v 12 | 13 v 12 | 13 v 12 |
| RTE Radio 1 | 284 | 28% | 295 | 29% | -11 | -1% | -3.7% |
| FM 104 | 225 | 22% | 213 | 21% | 12 | 1% | 5.6% |
| Spin 1038 | 131 | 13% | 160 | 16% | -29 | -3% | -18.1% |
| Newstalk | 122 | 12% | 124 | 12% | -2 | 0% | -1.6% |
| Q102 | 95 | 9% | 108 | 11% | -13 | -2% | -12.0% |
| 98FM | 87 | 9% | 113 | 10% | -26 | -1% | -23.0% |
| Today FM | 76 | 7% | 84 | 7% | -8 | 0% | -9.5% |
| RTE 2FM | 66 | 7% | 76 | 8% | -10 | -1% | -13.2% |
| RTE Lyric FM | 43 | 4% | 64 | 5% | -21 | -1% | -32.8% |
| Radio Nova 100FM | 43 | 4% | 56 | 6% | -13 | -2% | -23.2% |
| Sunshine 106.8 | 29 | 3% | 33 | 3% | -4 | 0% | -12.1% |
| Classic Hits 4FM | 25 | 2% | 23 | 2% | 2 | 0% | 8.7% |
| Phantom 105.2FM | 17 | 2% | 18 | 2% | -1 | 0% | -5.6% |
But it’s really the quarterly trends that show the true long-term picture of any station. You can clearly see that while RTE1has dropped 11,000 survey to survey, it belies the truth somewhat given that they have been on an upward trajectory for the last few books.
Dublin Market Shares
Dublin market shares show a similar picture to the reach story. The biggest share goes to RTE1 at 34% followed by FM104 at 14% after gaining 2% in the survey. 98FM was the biggest faller in share a close to 2% followed by Lyric and Spin. Graphically the chart below shows the clear lead RTE1 has in share terms in the capital.
| Station | 13_2 | 12_2 | +/- |
| RTE Radio 1 | 33.60% | 32.30% | 1.30% |
| FM104 | 14.10% | 12.20% | 1.90% |
| Q102 | 8.60% | 8.30% | 0.30% |
| Newstalk | 8.20% | 7.50% | 0.70% |
| Spin 1038 | 7.10% | 7.70% | -0.6% |
| 98FM | 5.90% | 7.70% | -1.8% |
| Today FM | 5.70% | 6.30% | -0.6% |
| RTE 2FM | 5.20% | 6.00% | -0.8% |
| Radio Nova 100FM | 3.70% | 3.10% | 0.6% |
| Sunshine 106.8 | 2.50% | 2.30% | 0.2% |
| RTE Lyric FM | 2.20% | 3.40% | -1.2% |
| Classic Hits 4FM | 1.90% | 1.40% | 0.5% |
| Phantom 105.2FM | 0.90% | 0.70% | 0.2% |
| Other Region | 0.30% | 0.50% | -0.2% |
And in order to see that going on underneath RTE you have to take them out of the picture to get a better look.
It shows FM104 losing a bit of traction this survey, but mainly confined to the last quarter. The opposing stories of two stations over the last few years: Newstalk making good headway in share terms since 2011_4 in the capital and 98FM going completely in the wrong direction since 2010_2.
Dublin Quarter Hours
Briefly looking at the quarter hours, again the graph is dominated by RTE1 in the capital. Throughout the day the station dominates it rivals and having two and a half to three times the audience of FM104 in the early morning.
Removing RTE1 from the picture and splitting the stations lets us get a better picture of the quarter hour battles.
George is obviously a big draw in the capital pushing Newstalk into second spot in this crowded market for this time slot.
