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Commercial radio is tightening its grip on the youth market,

despite the threat posed by new media.

Third-quarter figures from Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar)

remained fairly static in the last quarter, apart from youth stations

which pulled in bigger audiences in terms of reach and hours.

Emap’s Kiss 100 was the best performer in the youth sector, boosting its

share of 15- to 24-year-old listeners and pulling in its highest ever

Rajar results.

Total number of hours of listening among this age bracket soared to 9.3

million for the quarter, ending 26 June, and weekly reach grew 24 per

cent year on year to 1.5 million.

Scottish station Beat 106 scored highly and is growing by an average 8

per cent per year.

Capital’s youth station Xfm also pulled in its highest number of

listeners yet, at 443,000.

However, Classic FM again topped the Rajar tables with a weekly reach of

6.2 million. It now accounts for 53.2 per cent of national commercial

radio listening.

Virgin Radio, the New Atlantic 252, and TalkSport all suffered declines

in their weekly reach.

TalkSport defended the drop by insisting it had succeeded in achieved

its aim of encouraging more ABC1 sport-mad males to tune in.

’You can’t expect a radio station to give itself a new brand image and

pull in audience in less than a year,’ said Rachell Fox, operations

director at the Commercial Radio Companies Association. ’Radio listeners

are habitual creatures and take time to change allegiance.’

Mike Hope-Milne, head of radio at MediaCom TMB, said: ’Kiss 100 has

annoyed its hard-core listeners by selling out and going more

commercial, but it’s worked brilliantly, attracting a big London

audience.

’Beat 106 is also doing well because of its funky programming. It’s

stealing younger listeners from the other Scottish stations,’ he added.

’It’s obvious from the results that the youth stations are maturing into

attractive products, while the mainstream music stations are suffering.’