Ear worms

Some odds and ends from the latest RAJAR listening figures, covering the first three months of the year. Radio 1, despite attracting headlines for a low Nick Grimshaw figure, is actually up year on year by 2.1% to a weekly reach of 9.9m.

Radio 4 Extra has taken a little nose-dive - down 14.8%, to 1.85m. I wonder if The Navy Lark is now coming round too often ?

As we wait for figures for the new TalkRadio figures, LBC is doing quite nicely, up 13% nationally, to 1.5m. TalkSport is down 5%, to 3.1m. Radio 5Live, which has been told by John Whittingdale not to sound like either of them, is stable year on year. World Service is up 8.4%, at 1.5m.

In music (and distinctive speech) Radio 2 is up 2.8% year on year, to 15.5m. 6Music is up 8.3%, to 2.2m, led by good evening figures for Steve Lamacq. Radio 3, under Alan 'Wavey' Davey, is up 1.6%, to 2.2m, and the audience is listening longer. Classic FM is down 7% to 5m.

BBC Local Radio is largely unchanged as a group, but as ever, there are some big swings inside that figure. In the big cities, Radio London, where Vanessa Feltz replaced Paul Ross and Penny Smith at breakfast in January, is down 12.3% to 354k, its lowest figure since 2005. Radio Manchester is down 23% to 176k. Radio WM, for Birmingham, is up 7.7%, to 225k.

In our devolved nations and regions, Radio Wales is down 11% year-on-year, to 380k, and Radio Cymru is also down 11%, to 112k. Radio Ulster is up 4.2%, to 546k, and Radio Scotland up 1% to 940k.