Heart, Magic fight for London top spot

Heart 106.2 and Magic 105.4 have topped London's commercial radio listening figures, with Capital stuck a distant third.

RAJAR figures for the fourth quarter of last year revealed that Bauer's Magic had 1.97m listeners in the period compared to Heart's 1.84m. Capital trailed with 1.52m listeners.

In terms of share, however, Heart had 6.2% of the market, very slightly ahead of Magic's 6.1%. Capital, by comparison, captured 4.7% of the market.

At breakfast, a different picture emerged: Magic's Neil Fox, who had the number one breakfast show in the last ratings measurement period, slipped to third place with 811,000 listeners behind Heart's team of Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott, who had 915,000 listeners, and Capital's Johnny Vaughan who had 864,000 listeners in a comparable timeslot. Vaughan places ahead of Heart's show when the 9am hour of his show is taken into account.

> Click here for reaction from Global Radio's Richard Park

Outside the top three, there was cause for celebration at Smooth Radio, which grew in terms of both share and hours, and LBC, which grew its listener numbers by 10% quarter-on-quarter.