WLR has plenty to celebrate today: as per the latest listenership figures that were released this week, 63% of all adults (15+) in Waterford listen to WLR every single week!
Growth is evident across the 7-day schedule, with each of the Monday-Friday shows recording big year-on-year increases; most notable of which is Eamon Keane on WLR’s mid-morning show, Déise Today. Less than 10 months into the time-slot, after taking over from the late Billy McCarthy in January 2017, Eamon and the Déise Today team have increased their listenership by a staggering average of 2,000 listeners every 15 minutes across the 2 hour show.
The Big Breakfast Blaa with Mary O'Neill and Ollie Carroll, The Lunchbox with Geoff Harris, The Drive Home with Teresanne O’Reilly, The Shift with Ray C and The Late Show with John O’Shea all significantly increased listenership year-on-year.
Déise Today Producer, Jennifer Long and Presenter, Eamon Keane are humbled by the warm welcome the new show has received from listeners across Waterford.
The increase in figures for the weekday offering is complimented with a phenomenal jump in weekend figures; seeing market share increasing by a huge 7.6% on Saturdays and even bigger 9.3% on Sundays.
WLR’s excellent coverage of a brilliant summer of sport and local festivals has certainly been a key player in increasing weekend listenership. ‘The Big Match’ with George Corbett SKODA covered some historic and memorable moments across the 2017 Senior Hurling Championship; finally overcoming Kilkenny after a 58 year battle; beating Cork to qualify for our 3rd All-Ireland Final in 54 years; and the build-up and coverage of the 2017 All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final and the team’s homecoming following their valiant efforts against Galway.
Waterford FC’s superb summer in Airtricty League 1st Division action was another highlight on WLR Sport this year, while the Tramore August Racing Festival, Spraoi, The West Waterford Festival of Food, The Harvest Festival and The Dungarvan Show each took centre stage on WLR across another successful year of radio in Waterford.
Welcoming the figures, Michael Byrne, Programme Director at WLR, said: "The increased ratings gives us great confidence and we remain dedicated to delivering an excellent radio service to the people of Waterford. To have increases across the 7-day schedule shows the quality of the product on-air and the loyalty of Waterford people to their local station. We are proud to serve Waterford City and County."
Des Whelan, Managing Director of WLR said; "The latest figures are a great boost for all of us working here in WLR. We are incredibly thankful to our loyal listeners for choosing WLR and we will continue to provide Waterford with a great local radio service in 2018.”
As a local station, WLR is committed to delivering a variety of offerings for everyone across County Waterford. From farming and Irish language programmes, to the Arts, current affairs, and genre-specific music shows like Rock’N’Roll Sports, The Green Scene and Guaranteed Irish, WLR ensures specialist coverage for all interests within the county.
WLR also takes a public service approach to providing extensive coverage of unexpected and unprecedented events like hurricane Ophelia, during which the station’s online listenership peaked via WLRFM.com, the all-new WLR App and the Irish Radio Player App. WLR also saw huge spikes in reach and engagement across all online platforms during and after the storm.
From Monday to Sunday, 83% of people in Ireland choose radio, and in Waterford, WLR is the most listened to radio station, with more listeners that Radio 1 and Today FM combined.
We love Waterford. We are WLR.
Some interesting facts about radio in Ireland:
1. Over 3.1million people tune in everyday! This is an increase of 14,000 since the last round of figures were released 3 months ago.
2. That’s 83% of Irish Adults (15+) tuning in to Irish Radio on a daily basis.
3. We love to listen. Radio makes up 88% of all audio listening in Ireland.
4. In terms of 15 -34s, 77% tune in to Irish Radio on a daily basis and Radio accounts for 75% of their time spent listening to audio.
5. 95% of listening happens on the AM/FM Radio.
6. Listeners tune in on average for over 4 hours per day (4hrs and 12 mins – 247 minutes).
7. There’s no battle of the sexes when it comes to radio; listenership is split 51% female and 49% male.
8. Over a quarter of all adults who listen to radio have downloaded a radio station app (28%).
9. The audience is spread across urban and rural with 63% of listening in Urban Areas and 37% in Rural.
10. Radio dominates the share of audio listening at 88% versus listening to own music at 8% and streaming music at 3.3%
Source: Ipsos MRBI JNLR 2017 4 released on Wednesday 25th October.
