Leading the charge against the public broadcaster are former BBC stars at a rival network that has seen an increase in listeners beyond Radio 1, making it a larger audience than Radio 1.
In the first three months of 2024, Greatest Hits Radio saw an average weekly audience of 7.69 million, a 50% increase from its 5.12 million listeners the previous year.
Based on data released by the research organization Rajar, this was sufficient to surpass BBC Radio 1 for the first time, which had 7.31 million listeners during the same three-month period.
The popularity of the commercial station has been fueled by big-name hires like former BBC DJ Ken Bruce, who joined the network in April 2023 after working for the BBC for 30 years and brought the beloved “Popmaster” quiz to Greatest Hits Radio.
When the 73-year-old broadcaster’s mid-morning program became the most listened-to radio show in the UK in 2019, Vernon Kay took over as his replacement. Recently, the broadcaster expressed his sorrow that the BBC had reportedly failed to publicize the news in 2019.
Bruce was reunited with Simon Mayo, the former BBC drivetime DJ who has been hosting the same slot on the network since March 2021, after spending forty years working at BBC radio stations, when he joined the ranks of Greatest Hits Radio.
Several more broadcasters who had long-running shows on BBC radio are now part of the network, including Paul Gambaccini, Jackie Brambles, Alex Lester, and Richard Allinson.
A different audience than that of Radio 1, Greatest Hits Radio focuses on songs from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s rather than modern pop and dance.
With an average weekly audience of 13.23 million in the most recent quarter, which is essentially unchanged from the preceding three months, BBC Radio 2 still has a significant lead over all other music stations.
Following Ken Bruce’s departure in the spring of 2023, the station lost a million listeners; however, this loss appears to have stopped and its numbers now appear to be at a level.
With its most recent statistic of 7.31 million, down just slightly from 7.33 million in the previous quarter, Radio 1 is likewise remaining stable.
However, the number of listeners to the BBC’s local and regional stations has kept declining, with an average audience of 6.85 million from January to March 2024—down from 7.38 million a year earlier and 6.99 million in the preceding quarter.
The decline has occurred as a result of the corporation’s efforts to save costs in the face of rising inflation and a limit on license fees. These efforts have included proposals for local stations to broadcast less locally-specific programs and share more programming.
The first quarter of 2021, from July to September, saw Rajar restart reporting following the Covid-19 pandemic, and the BBC’s local and regional audience reported to be 9.16 million.
PA’s additional reporting
