Irish radio heavy hitters lose listeners as Callan and Savage enjoy big audience gains
CLAIRE BYRNE, JOE Duffy and Ray D'arcy have all lost thousands of listeners in recent months, according to the latest JNLR figures – though it's not all bad news for the hosts at RTE Radio 1.
According to the JNLR survey, which covered the 12 months up to the end of March 2025, roughly 3.83 million adults are listening to Irish radio every day.
Of these, over 2 million are tuning in to RTÉ. The national broadcaster's shows dominate the top 20 programmes list, taking a total of 17 spots.
Radio 1 is the most popular station in the State, reaching 1.3 million listeners every week.
Its market share of 35–54 year-olds has grown, outperforming all other stations in that demographic.
RTÉ 2FM retains its position as the most-listened-to by 15-34 year-olds, now reaching 714,000 listeners every week.
Despite the gains made by the station, listenership figures on a number of their top shows are down – including for Joe Duffy's Liveline, who is down 7,000 listeners since December 2024.
Duffy, who recently announced his upcoming departure from the afternoon radio slot, currently has an audience of 307,000.
Today with Claire Byrne also saw a drop in recent months – Byrne now has 348,000 listeners, down by a thousand since the last JNLR survey.
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Louise Duffy's audience dropped by 5,000 to 223,000 listeners, and Ray D'arcy dropped 2,000 to 192,000 listeners.
Radio 1′s flagship news shows saw mixed results – Morning Ireland increased its listenership by 5,000 to reach an audience of 471,000, while News at One and Drivetime lost a significant number of listeners – 10,000 and 5,000 respectively.
Some Radio 1 hosts saw gains however, with Oliver Callan seeing the largest increase. The host now has an audience of 355,000, up 6,000 in recent months.
Brendan O'Connor also recorded an increase of 5,000 listeners to reach an audience of 363,000.
Elsewhere in Irish radio, Bauer Media (owners of Today FM, Newstalk, Spin1038 and a number of other stations) also recorded mixed results.
The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM recorded a gain of 2,000 listeners to reach a morning audience of 204,000. Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show lost a significant 13,000 listeners however, now hosting an audience of 224,000.
The Last Word with Matt Cooper now holds an audience of 163,000 (down by 4,000 listeners), while Ray Foley hosts 153,000 listeners (down 11,000).
On Newstalk, the Anton Savage Show now has 133,000 listeners on Saturday (up 10,000) and Sunday (up 5,000). Off the Ball on Saturday recorded 157,000 listeners (up an impressive 21,000 listeners) and on Sunday, 146,000 listeners (up 19,000).
Kieran Cuddihy on The Hard Shoulder now has an audience of 153,000, up 3,000 listeners, while Andrea Gilligan's Lunchtime Live audience is down 5,000 to 134,000.
Moncrieff is down 4,000 to 108,000 listeners.
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