Ball games

Another uncomfortable set of listening figures for Radio 5 Live, down 15% year on year, to a weekly reach of 5.3m - which, from memory, is roundabout where it started in 1994. 5Live Sports Extra got a boost from the old war horse of Test Match Special, covering the West Indies and New Zealand Tests, and was up 77%, but football on the radio in general suffered - Talksport was down 10% year on year as well. I suspect this is down to the growing availability of tv coverage, at home and in the pub.

LBC seems to have had a good General Election, with ever-growing Nick Ferrari at breakfast ever-growing, bringing record figures to the station around the UK - maybe ex-5Liver Shelagh Fogarty also helped. The Today programme had no noticeable election surge.

In other odds and ends, Radio Cymru is down 22% year on year; Radio Manchester up 22%; the Asian Network is up by 10%. Nostalgia is doing well for Absolute 80s, up 29% and Absolute 70s, up a stonking 68%. There were surges for Heart Northwales and Smooth North West and Wales, presumably thanks to the arrival of DAB transmitters.

The World Service in the UK was up 13% year on year. In a statistic from another source, the average age of listeners around the globe is said to be 32. Maybe they should produce Radio 1 as well.