But with young people emigrating, things are about to get a lot tougher for radio

BREAKFAST RADIO is one of the most competitive segments of the Irish media market. Win breakfast and you win the day, is the mantra for all radio bosses.

Veteran DJ Marty Whelan’s early morning programme on Lyric FM has lifted average quarter-hour listenership by 33 per cent since he took over the slot last August. And he hasn’t lost listeners in any age group.

Whelan's laid back banter and mellow playlist, which can run from Elgar's Salut D'Amourto Tony Bennett's I left My Heart in San Francisco, is proving to have increasing appeal, even if a lot more people still hear his Tesco ads than his breakfast musings.

Whelan’s career has had a fair share of ups and downs since he left RTÉ in 1989 to join Century Radio. During his years in exile from Montrose, Whelan was most visible for his Daz commercials. Even when the RTÉ eventually brought him back, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Whelan was on holiday in 2007 when he learned his 2FM radio show Marty in the Morning was to be axed.

According to OMD chief executive Dave Harland: “Marty and Lyric are small players in the radio landscape. But what’s good about Marty is that he is a personality who can work across a number of RTÉ platforms, in the same way as Miriam O’Callaghan and Hector Ó hEochagáin.”

Peter McPartlin of ad agency Carat says Whelan’s programme is an important mainstay to start the Lyric schedule each day.

“He has a regular and stable following and, although small, the profile of that audience is attractive to advertisers: older, white collar, urban adults who arguably want an alternative to the mainstream to ease them into the day.”

Lyric has proved so adept at bringing in established presenters such as Gay Byrne, George Hamilton and Eamon Lawlor that it’s something of a retirement home for silver-haired RTÉ broadcasters. Lyric’s overall market share is 1.7 per cent, on a par with peer station BBC Radio 3 (1.3 per cent) though Classic FM in Britain does a bit better with almost 4 per cent share.

Joan Harris, media director of Focus Advertising, says: “Marty is on air in the most competitive time slot on radio where he competes for listeners with Morning Ireland on Radio 1, Hector Ó hEochagáin on 2FM, Ian Dempsey on Today FM and Ivan Yates and Chris O’Donoghue on Newstalk. However, Marty offers a niche product, a blend of classic music and entertainment.”

The only two other national radio programmes to have increased their adult listeners in the past year have been Morning Ireland and the breakfast show on Newstalk, with the latter growing by 30 per cent.

Ruth Ní Fhloinn of ad agency Mediaedge:CIA observes: “Newstalk has shown the healthiest increase across all major target groups. It has increased its breakfast listenership by 23,000, which is massive considering how much competition there is and that other shows covering similar political and economic issues have lost listeners.”

Listenership figures have also risen for Newstalk’s evening drivetime show presented by George Hook.

Harland notes the importance of the breakfast show to Newstalk is underlined by the decision to extend the programme run time to 10am. “From an entertainment perspective, the last hour of the show tends to be more relaxed and conversational,” says Harland. “People want current affairs and news at the start of the day but after 9am they want something a bit lighter.”

Elsewhere in the breakfast radio arena, Hector Ó hEochagáin is broadening 2FM’s listenership base outside of Dublin and FM104 has relaunched its Strawberry Alarm Clock show with the return of Jim-Jim Nugent who used to present 2FM’s breakfast show.

Conor White at airtime buyer Mindshare says 2FM’s breakfast show had been in freefall and that Hector has stopped the rot. “FM104 is still the lead Dublin station but Q102 is strong too. With a new team on the 98FM breakfast show, it will probably have a strong recovery in the next six months.”

Still struggling is the rebranded Classic Hits 4FM. The station recently moved its breakfast presenter Gareth O’Callaghan to an afternoon slot and has replaced him with Jim McCabe.

Ní Fhloinn says the most disheartening outcome for her in the last listenership report was the sharp decrease in 15-34 listeners. “This audience isn’t simply switching off their radio – they are leaving the country. I predict that we will see a further decrease of the under 25 audience when the next report is published in August.

“National stations are suffering to the benefit of the local stations. The fight for national listenership, particularly people under 45, is going to get tougher.”

siobhan@businessplus.ie