Now, before the stones are flung and the ‘OMG’s’ are uttered – let’s explain. In all of today’s major publications we have the analysis of the listenership figures. In all cases the analysis is April 2011 to March 2012, compared January to December 2011 – it’s an analysis I don’t agree with. Perhaps the ‘conventional wisdom’ is that comparison, but convention and at times wisdom are in short supply.
Let’s say you are a major retailer and you are looking at your figures for a seasonal part of the year, say December. Naturally you are going to lookat the increase month on month, but the ticket figure will be the comparison of ‘like for like’ sales December on the previous December. I believe that the same analysis should be applied to the JNLR figures and therefore the comparisons here are Apr ’11-Mar ’12 to Apr ’10-Mar ’11.
Firstly let’s take a look at the top ten (and these are weekday M-F figures only). The domination for RTE is fairly obvious here
| # | Station | Time | Program | 2012 | 2011 | +/- |
| 1 | RTE1 | 07.00-09.00 | Morning Ireland | 449 | 456 | -7 |
| 2 | RTE1 | 13.45-15.00 | Live Line | 417 | 404 | 13 |
| 3 | RTE1 | 13.00-13.45 | News at One | 350 | 338 | 12 |
| 4 | RTE1 | 09.00-10.00 | John Murray | 334 | 330 | 4 |
| 5 | RTE1 | 10.00-12.00 | Pat Kenny | 333 | 326 | 7 |
| 6 | Today FM | 09.00-12.00 | Ray D’Arcy | 249 | 218 | 31 |
| 7 | RTE1 | 16.30-19.00 | DriveTime | 245 | 239 | 6 |
| 8 | RTE1 | 15.00-16.30 | Mooney | 226 | 234 | -8 |
| 9 | RTE1 | 12.00-13.00 | Ronan Collins | 223 | 233 | -10 |
| 10 | Today FM | 07.00-09.00 | Ian Dempsey | 183 | 166 | 17 |
Just for the record, it interesting to see the individual stations and their line-up’s
| Time | RTE1 | 2012 | 2011 | +/- |
| 07.00-09.00 | Morning Ireland | 449 | 456 | -7 |
| 09.00-10.00 | John Murray | 334 | 330 | 4 |
| 10.00-12.00 | Pat Kenny | 333 | 326 | 7 |
| 12.00-13.00 | Ronan Collins | 223 | 233 | -10 |
| 13.00-13.45 | News at One | 350 | 338 | 12 |
| 13.45-15.00 | Live Line | 417 | 404 | 13 |
| 15.00-16.30 | Mooney | 226 | 234 | -8 |
| 16.30-19.00 | DriveTime | 245 | 239 | 6 |
| 19.00-19.30 | Sport at Seven | 31 | 27 | 4 |
| Time | 2FM | 2012 | 2011 | +/- |
| 06.00-07.00 | Damian Farrelly | 7 | 10 | -3 |
| 07.00-09.00 | Hector | 122 | 137 | -15 |
| 09.00-11.00 | Tubridy | 172 | 202 | -30 |
| 11.00-13.00 | Colm Hayes | 141 | 145 | -4 |
| 13.00-14.00 | Larry Gogan’s Golden Hour | 87 | 76 | 11 |
| 14.00-16.30 | Rick in the Afternoon | 120 | 127 | -7 |
| 16.30-19.00 | More Music Drive With Will Leahy | 116 | 113 | 3 |
| 19.00-21.00 | Jenny Greene | 25 | 20 | 5 |
| Time | Today FM | 2012 | 2011 | +/- |
| 07.00-09.00 | Ian Dempsey | 183 | 166 | 17 |
| 09.00-12.00 | Ray D’Arcy | 249 | 218 | 31 |
| 12.00-14.30 | Ray Foley | 151 | 156 | -5 |
| 14.30-16.30 | Tony Fenton | 122 | 120 | 2 |
| 16.30-19.00 | Matt Cooper | 166 | 164 | 2 |
| 19.00-22.00 | Paul McLoone | 29 | 30 | -1 |
| Time | Newstalk | 2012 | 2011 | +/- |
| 07.00-10.00 | Breakfast | 138 | 99 | 39 |
| 10.00-12.00 | Tom Dunne | 52 | 54 | -2 |
| 12.00-13.30 | Lunchtime | 66 | 62 | 4 |
| 13.30-16.30 | Moncrieff | 98 | 92 | 6 |
| 16.30-19.00 | The Right Hook | 130 | 123 | 7 |
| 19.00-22.00 | Off the Ball | 48 | 44 | 4 |
And finally – a pretty picture:
