The 6.1% share of listening the GCap station maintained, according to figures for the April-June quarter released by Rajar, is one of the lowest figures recently seen for a station in pole position, while Heart and Magic experienced a drop in share. Chrysalis' Heart, which managed 7% last quarter, got only 5% and was just pipped by Emap's Magic, which got 5.1%.
The Heart breakfast show, joined by Jamie Theakston in mid-April, saw its number of listeners drop from 972,000 to 720,000. But listeners also abandoned Johnny Vaughan's rival Capital show, which slumped by a similar number from 1.24m to 1.08m.
Share was taken by a few of the smaller commercial stations, not least LBC, which pulled itself up itself from 2% last quarter to 3.7%. Chrysalis, which spent on advertising the FM station during the quarter, also saw the AM-only LBC News increase share from 0.5% to 1.2%.
Also benefiting were GCap's Choice FM, up from 1.3% to 2.6% and Emap's Kiss FM, up from 3.9% to 4.1%. BBC London also managed an increase from 1.4% to 1.6%.
A marked loser was Guardian Media Group's Smooth FM, which rebranded from Jazz FM on June 7, late in the survey. Its share fell from 2.8% to 1.9%.
A GMG spokeswoman said that the third quarter would provide a fairer reflection of the station, and pointed to the successful performance of its North West Smooth station since its rebranding in March 2004. It has doubled its market share to 4.5% and achieved a record 529,000 listeners.
Virgin Radio dipped from 3.7% to 3.6%, while GCap's Xfm was a non-mover with 1.6%. The Xfm breakfast show went from 258,000 to 318,000.
In the ongoing national struggle between commercial radio and the BBC, the former scored a point by reversing the BBC's recent gains in share. BBC share fell from 54.2% to 54%, while commercial share increased from 43.8% to 44%.
Radio 2 fell back from 16.5% to 16%, as did Radio 4, from 11.4% to 11.2%, and Radio 5 Live from 4.6% to 4.4%.
However, Radio 1 managed a big increase from 8.4% to 9.2%, and Chris Moyles increased his breakfast show audience from 6.17m to 6.26m.
Of the three commercial national stations, Classic FM was the only one to increase share, climbing from 4.1% to 4.3%.
TalkSport dropped from 1.9% to 1.8%, while Virgin Radio stayed at 1.5%.
The big regional networks lost share, with GCap's Century chain down from 1.6% to 1.3%, and Chrysalis' Heart network unmoved at 2.2% and its Galaxy dance network down from 1.7% to 1.6%. Emap's Magic network was down from 2.1% to 2%.
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