Between the third and fourth quarters, Radio 2's audience grew from 12.74m to 13.27m and its share of listening climbed from 15.5% to 15.8%. Terry Wogan's breakfast audience grew from 7.65m to 7.98m.
The corporation's main youth brand, Radio 1, was down slightly from 10.58m to 10.26m listeners and from a 9.8% share to 9.7%. Radio 4 also slipped, from 9.47m to 9.34m listeners and from a 11.8% share to 11.1%.
However, with Five Live up from 4.2% to 4.4% and the BBC's local stations up from 9.8% to 10.4%, the BBC did enough to frustrate commercial radio's ambition to grow its share of listening.
Ad-funded radio's overall share fell from 43.6% to 43.2%, while the BBC's overall share inched up from 54.3% to 54.4%. The BBC's all-time high was 55.4% in the first quarter of 2006.
The 15-44 audience for commercial radio dropped from 56.4% to 53.8% although the 45-plus audience increased from 33.1% to 34.1%.
The three national analogue commercial brands' share of listening remains deadlocked. Classic FM with 4.2% dropped from 5.9m listeners to 5.75m; TalkSport with 1.8% dropped from 2.27m to 2.24m; and Virgin with 1.5% rose from 2.38m to 2.47m.
Among the regional analogue commercial network operators Emap's Kiss increased its share from 1.5% to 1.6% and its reach from 2.89m to 2.92m.
In September, Emap expanded Kiss' analogue presence outside London by rebranding its Vibe FM stations in East Anglia and Bristol, and refreshed the brand's programming line-up and website.
Chrysalis' rival to Kiss, the Galaxy network, increased its share from 1.8% to 1.9% and its reach from 2.58m to 2.66m.
Chrysalis' Heart network held its share at 2.4% and its reach at 3.1m, while Emap's Magic slipped from 2.1% to 2% though its reach inched up from 3.04m to 3.07m.
The GCap-owned Xfm network, which expanded to Manchester and Scotland and to a number of local DAB multiplexes during 2006, lost share over the quarter from 0.8% to 0.7% while its reach stayed at 1.13m..jpg)
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