BBC Radio: Radio 2 Gains, BBC 1 Loses Listeners

Host Chris Evans

Radio 2 has surged to its biggest-ever audience as sister station Radio 1's breakfast DJ Nick Grimshaw lost more than a million of his older listeners since taking over from Chris Moyles.

The Guardian is reporting Radio 2, which was named UK station of the year at the Radio Academy awards this week, attracted 15.6 million listeners in the first quarter of this year, according to Rajar audience figures published on Thursday.

It was a new high for the station, which has transformed itself over the last decade and a half, with record ratings for Chris Evans, Ken Bruce, Steve Wright and Graham Norton.

Radio 1, which is undergoing its own reinvention as it seeks a younger audience, had 10.5 million listeners, down 400,000 on the previous quarter but up 2.6% year on year.

Grimshaw had 5.85 million listeners, down from 6.3 million the previous quarter and his predecessor Moyles's final audience of 6.7 million.

But with the station under pressure from the BBC Trust and its commercial rivals to do more to appeal to younger listeners, the presenter was in the unusual position of being praised by his controller for losing listeners.

Radio 1 said the show had gained 130,000 listeners aged 24 and under and shed more than half a million over-25s during the three-month period.

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