Radio stations all over Ireland responded to the latest audience figures with the usual flurry of press releases emphasising their strongest results. Even RTE executives abandoned themselves to the temptation of declaring the "good news" contained in some of the JNLR figures, while ignoring the more ominous overall trends.
From early morning, news bulletins on RTE relayed the message that RTE was "holding its ground". Director of radio Ms Helen Shaw said the figures showed RTE's "continued dominance" of Irish broadcasting.
Ms Shaw admitted she was "disappointed" with the performance of Radio 1, but predicted RTE's overall share of the market would bounce back to 50 per cent when the next figures are issued in August. She stressed the relative success of Lyric FM and 2 FM and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief in announcing that Five Seven Live was - still - the leading drive-time programme.
"While there has been some drop in lunchtime Radio 1's audience, the overall stability and indeed growth in recruitment of new listeners is very reassuring and shows the trends are positive for the coming year." Advertising practitioners - the people who decide where to spend the money that keeps all the stations afloat - took a different tack. "There's a sense of deja vu about these figures, with RTE Radio 1 continuing to slide slowly down the bannisters," said Mr Aidan Dunne, media director of McConnells Advertising.
"The problem for Today FM is that its female listener-ship is going nowhere." Mr Dunne says Lyric FM is doing well with its largely middle-class, AB1 listener-ship. "It got off to a strong start, and has settled down comfortably with the audience it knows."
