Neil Fox tops London breakfast for Magic

Neil Fox on Magic 105.4 has the most-listened to commercial breakfast show in London, according to second-quarter RAJAR figures out today.

The station's weekly reach was 868,000 between 6am and 9am - just 24,000 ahead of its nearest rival Heart 106.2, whose Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott won the slot in the previous two quarters.

Capital 95.8, which has brought Denise Van Outen in to support Johnny Vaughan at breakfast, was in third place. The station had a reach of 772,000 between 6am and 9am, growing to 944,000 when their 9am to 10am hour is included.

Fox, who began Magic's More Music Breakfast Show after leaving Capital three years ago, said: "I couldn't be more chuffed, this is probably the greatest RAJAR result of my career. London is such a competitive market and the breakfast show is such a coveted crown to be gained.

"We are number one on reach and on share. Bloody amazing. This is the tip of the iceberg. We are in a good place right now."

Bauer Radio-owned Magic also retained its position as the most-listened to London commercial station across all hours for a record sixth consecutive quarter, with a weekly reach of 2m and a 7.4% share of listening time. The reach grew another 4.5% quarter-on-quarter and was up 2.1% year-on-year.

Heart, part of Global Radio, came second on 1.8m, down 4% quarter-on-quarter and 2% year-on-year, with a 5.7% share of listening.

GCap Media's Capital regained third place thanks to a 5.8% growth on Q1, when it lost fourth position to Kiss 100, taking its reach to 1.6m and share to 4.6%. Kiss, also in the Bauer stable, was on 1.4m and 4.5%.

Looking nationally, commercial radio's share of all listening - against that of BBC stations - was 42.4%, up from 41.1% in the previous quarter but still down from 43.5% in Q2 2007.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of commercial radio body RadioCentre, said: "Our local stations have had a particularly good quarter with increases in reach and share, reaping the benefits of relaxed regulation - our share of local listening is now 77%, up from 75% last quarter."