Radio 3's 'spring clean' becomes a turn-off for listeners

BBC Radio 3's audience has fallen to its lowest figure for a decade. It followed a "spring clean" of the schedule in March by the controller, Roger Wright, the most radical shake-up of the station for five years.

Rajar audience figures, which covered the period from April to June 2007, showed that the station had 1.78 million listeners over the second quarter of 2007, down 51,000 on the year and 119,000 on the quarter.

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A spokesman said the station's audience figures were traditionally low at this time of year. Jane Clancey, research chief for BBC audio and music, said it would take some time for the new schedule to "bed in".

"It is only to be expected that the schedule changes would take time to bed in. It [audience figures] always floats around the two million level, and year on year it is broadly stable," she said.

When he implemented the new schedule, Mr Wright insisted that change was healthy for the station.

"If Radio 3 hadn't changed since its first day in 1967, we would still be broadcasting sailing, swimming and football in addition to speech and music," he said. Meanwhile, the ever-popular Radio 1 presenter, Chris Moyles, proved he had not lost his Midas touch. His breakfast show attracted 7.26 million listeners - up 200,000 on the previous three months and 470,000 on this time last year.

Moyles is narrowing the gap between him and the nation's favourite breakfast presenter, Radio 2's Terry Wogan, who is 660,000 listeners ahead. Moyles' unstoppable rise helped Radio 1 reach an audience of 10.87 million, a quarterly increase of 320,000 and a yearly increase of 450,000. The only disappointment for the DJ was that his audience in London dropped from 970,000 to 939,000 over the quarter.

Jenny Abramsky, the BBC director of audio and music, celebrated Radio 1's impressive gains. "The network's distinctive music programming, combined with an innovative use of digital technology, have ensured it remains as relevant as ever to young listeners," she said.

Radio 2 meanwhile, had 13.1 million listeners, a slight drop compared to the previous quarter, although Wogan added 40,000 listeners to his show.

Radio 4's audience remained steady at 9.48 million, with 6.18 million tuning in to its flagship news programme, Today. In London, the most popular commercial station was Magic with 1.96 million listeners, followed by Heart 106.2 with 1.81 million, with the station's presenters, Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott becoming the capital's favourite commercial breakfast show hosts with 874,000 listeners.

Commercial radio had its highest audience in more than four years with just over 32 million adults listening each week - an increase of 1.3 million year on year.

Overall, radio listening rose, with around 91 per cent of the nation's population now tuning in. Figures also revealed that nearly six million listeners had tuned in digitally. One of digital radio's biggest success stories was the three-month old station theJazz, which posted its first set of figures at 334,000 listeners, beating Radio 3's jazz audience of 291,000.

The number of people over 15 who listened to radio on mobile phones rose 27 per cent in the past year to 4.4 million. Podcasts also proved popular, with 2.7 million people over15 listening to them - up from 1.9 million this time last year.

Winners and losers

* Numbers listening to digital-only stations have risen in the past four years from 905,000 in 2003 to 6.09 million in 2007.

* The Kiss FM disc jockeys Rickie Haywood-Williams and Melvin Odoom brought an extra 105,000 breakfast listeners in their first three months.

* In three months, the new digital radio station the Jazz attracted more listeners than Radio 3 does for its jazz shows, with the help of DJ Jamie Cullum and former Radio 3 presenter, Helen Mayhew. Magic was London's most popular commercial radio station with 1.96 million listeners.

* Capital Radio, once London's favourite station, slumped to fourth place in the city's commercial radio market with a drop in listeners to Johnny Vaughan's breakfast show.