2018 was a great year for WLR, and that has been reflected in the latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures which were released on Wednesday, 6th February at 11am.
Year on year, WLR has scored some big increases with EVERY WEEKDAY show gaining extra listeners in the 12 months since February 2018, with WLR listeners tuning in for an average of four hours every day.
The specialist 6-7pm shows, which air Monday-Friday with a focus on sport, arts & culture, business and farming have recorded an all-time high.
The weekends continue to be very strong with increases on almost all Saturday and Sunday shows, most notably, Absolute Irish with John O’Shea on Sunday evenings from 9pm to midnight. Absolute Irish is now the most listened to radio show on local radio in Ireland at that time, with a 40% increase in listenership year on year.
To put the results into numbers of listeners, compared to February 2018, WLR now has 6,000 new listeners daily, 6,000 new listeners who join us every week, 5,000 new listeners tuning in on Saturdays and a staggering 9,000 listeners who choose WLR on Sundays, while market share has jumped from 39%-45% on weekdays, 38%-42.9% on Saturdays and 34.8%-45% on Sundays.
Other interesting figures released show that 84% of housekeepers with kids listen to the radio every day, while there is very little difference in the numbers, or average time spent listening between men (who make up 51% of all radio listeners) and women (who make up 49% of all radio listeners).
Speaking about the recent results, WLR Programme Director, Michael Byrne says, “It has been a great start to 2019, and welcoming Damien Tiernan, the new voice of Waterford to the team really adds to the excitement. I am positive the growth will continue throughout this year and beyond.”
Meanwhile, WLR Managing Director, Des Whelan says, "Another really strong set of listenership figures for radio and a great result for WLR. Over the past 12 months WLR has grown its listenership by 6,000 listeners with 71% of all adults living in Waterford listening to WLR each week. That’s a phenomenal vote of confidence in the presenters and programmes on the station from our listeners and we look forward to giving our audience an even better service in the year ahead."
The results in numbers:
Weekly reach +6,000 new listeners
| Feb 2018 | 65% |
| Feb 2019 | 71% |
Daily reach +6,000 new listeners
| Feb 2018 | 43% |
| Feb 2019 | 49% |
Saturday reach +5,000 new listeners
| Feb 2018 | 34% |
| Feb 2019 | 38% |
Sunday reach +9,000 new listeners
| Feb 2018 | 30% |
| Feb 2019 | 40% |
SHARE of Listening Mon-Fri +6%
| Feb 2018 | 39% |
| Feb 2019 | 45% |
SHARE of Listening SAT +4.2%
| Feb 2018 | 38% |
| Feb 2019 | 42.9% |
SHARE of Listening SUN +10.2%
| Feb 2018 | 34.8% |
| Feb 2019 | 45% |
