London's Heart back on top at breakfast

Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott are the capital’s favourite commercial breakfast show hosts with 874,000 Londoners every week, according to today’s Rajar figures.

Heart 106.2. now owned by Global Radio, is ahead of all its commercial rivals at breakfast in terms of both reach and market share in London, having added almost 50,000 listeners over the last three months. Theakston and Scott saw their reach grow 5.9% quarter-on-quarter and 6.6% year-on-year.

Overall in London, Heart delivered a strong performance with its weekly reach up to over 1.8 million and increased market share level with Magic at 6.2%.

Phil Riley, outgoing chief executive said: "This is a fantastic set of Rajar figures with Heart’s London breakfast show back at number one and Heart still flying high as the nation’s number one independent local radio brand. It couldn’t be a better way to pass the baton on to the new team at Global Radio."

Ashley Tabor Chief Executive of Global Radio added: “Obviously this set of Rajars looks at the period before our ownership, but we are delighted with these results, particularly with Jamie and Harriet regaining the number one breakfast show in London. We’re also very pleased that Richard Park, who has been the driving force behind Magic, is now executive director of Global, working to build on the success of our brands even further."

Johnny Vaughan's breakfast show on Capital 95.8 took a 2.1% hit over Q2, bringing its reach down to 836,000 listeners from 854,000 last quarter. Alex Zane's Xfm breakfast show saw a 0.5% drop in reach over the quarter taking it to 255,000 from 257,000 last quarter. Breakfast show listeners have fallen away by a total of 5.3% from last year when Lauren Laverne was presenting the show.

Magic saw its Neil Fox breakfast show increase its reach by 14.2% over the quarter taking it to 823,000 listeners, up 102,000 from 721,000 last quarter. Kiss improved its fortunes in London helped by summer breakfast hosts Rickie and Melvin increasing its reach by 18% taking it to 688,000 up 105,000 from 583,000 last quarter. Its market share for breakfast rose 7.6% over the quarter to 3.4%.

Virgin Radio's Christian O'Connell breakfast show saw a 22.4% rise in listeners in London from 398,000 last quarter to 487,000 in Q2. Despite recording a 53.3% rise in its reach across the UK, Smooth's breakfast show took a 33.4% hit in London, bringing its reach down to 137,000 from 205,000 last quarter.