WLR records its highest listenership in 7 years with over 70% of all adults in Waterford tuning in to the station every week.

The latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures, released on Wednesday 25^th July, show that WLR’s weekly reach is now over 69,000 people; that’s 70% of adults (15years+) in Waterford listening every week for an average of 4 hours per day, (up 7,000 people on the same period last year) with its daily reach at 49%, (up 11,000 people on the same period last year).

Saturdays and Sundays have also shown unprecedented growth, adding 4,000 and 5,000 daily listeners respectively.

The significant growth is as a result of listenership increases across all shows in the schedule. The Big Breakfast Blaa with Mary O’Neill and Ollie Carroll has recorded its best results in 5 years, while Déise Today has record its highest figures in 3 years.

The Lunchbox with Geoff Harris is now WLR’s best performing lunchtime show ever, with Teresanne O’Reilly on The Drive Home returning the stations drive-time show to its highest listenership in over 10 years, more than doubling the audience since she took over that slot almost 3 years ago.

Evenings are also very strong, the daily specialist programmes at 6pm continue to attract new audiences, while Ray C on The Shift and John O’Shea on The Late Show have also doubled their audiences year-on-year.

Weekends continue to perform very strongly on WLR, with increases from the weekend’s breakfast show, the ‘Saturday/Sunday Sunrise’ with Sean Organ, right through to an extremely popular ‘Guaranteed Irish’ with John O’Shea on Sunday nights.

Weekly Reach – up from 64% to 70% - UP 6%

Daily Reach – up from 38% to 49% - UP 11%

Saturday Reach – up from 33% to 36% - UP 3%

Sunday Reach – 32% to 37% - UP 5%

Market share is up to a record breaking 44%

With a record breaking, year-on-year increase of 6.4% market share, WLR is now the most listened to city-based radio station in the country, beating its nearest rival by 11%.

City based stations:

WLR FM– 49%

Live 95 Limerick – 38%

Corks Red FM – 34%

Galway Bay FM – 31%

Corks 96fm – 28%

Corks c103 – 18%

Dublin FM104 – 17%

Dublin Spin – 14%

Dublin 98fm – 11%

Dublin Q102 – 8%

Speaking about the incredible results, WLR’s Programme Director, Michael Byrne, said, “In every quarter for the past 12-months, WLR have increased book on book. To score a 70% reach is a brilliant achievement. I’d like to put on record the effort and hard work put in by the staff in Waterford and Dungarvan over the last twelve months. From the All-Ireland run last year, to raising €85,000 for charity at Christmas to the snow storms in March and the heatwaves in July, it has been an eventful, challenging, and rewarding period for the station. A real team effort.”

WLR isn’t supported by the TV licence fee unlike the national broadcaster RTE Radio. Michael Byrne said “WLR is independently run and the public broadcasting service that we offer is achievable only by the support of the businesses across Waterford.”

While Des Whelan, WLR’s Managing Director, said, “The JNLR listenership figures were a great boost for all of us working here in WLR. We are incredibly thankful to our loyal listeners for their support particularly over the last twelve months.”