Radio 1's star wanes as flagship show loses 700,000 listeners

Sara Cox, Radio 1's breakfast DJ, has lost 700,000 adult listeners in a year, new audience figures showed yesterday.

Her naughty sense of humour and "ladette" image made the DJ a huge success when she first took over the morning slot from her friend Zoe Ball. But her star has been tarnished by incidents such as an interview with a foul-mouthed Ali G that got out of control. Her show now draws5.7 million listeners compared with 6.4 million a year ago.

This mirrors a general decline in Radio 1 audiences from 11.3 million to 10.5 million. The official figures are adult-only but if you include children and young people, Ms Cox has lost 800,000 listeners since last summer – though she was on a record high at that time.

The World Cup was blamed for contributing to an overall audience decline in the three months to the end of June. However, Radio 5 Live and Talksport were the beneficiaries of World Cup fever with 5 Live enjoying a record audience of 6.7 million, up 200,000 on the previous quarter and 1 million on the year. The network invested heavily in World Cup coverage, basing itself in Japan and Korea. Talksport saw its audience grow during the tournament to 2.4 million a week, up 8 per cent on 12 months ago.

The industry continues to be dominated by Radio 2, which last year overtook Radio 1 as Britain's biggest station. The new figures from the Radio Joint Audience Research Bureau showed Radio 2 enjoying a record high of 13 million.

Classic FM, which is the largest commercial station in the UK, picked up 360,000 listeners in the past year. Darren Henley, the managing editor, said: "Sports stations such as Radio 5 Live have picked up listeners with their World Cup coverage. Those who are not so interested in football have come to Classic FM for something a little different."