Elsewhere in commercial radio, the continuing clustering of stations into national brands has seen rises for Smooth, Heart, Kiss, Magic, Galaxy, Gold and Absolute.
On the digital front, 6Music stands at 1.2m, double the figure of a year ago. Dangerous boss Bob Shennan has hinted in the BBC staff magazine Ariel that he opposed the closure to his superiors, but clearly breaches the rules of "Cabinet" responsibility by saying he "toed the corporate line, because that's my job". 1Xtra has 806,000 listeners. BBC7 - a brand which I hope might get a reprieve under Gwyneth Williams - is robust at 1.0m; and the beleaguered Asian Network is up 30% year on year to 462,000.
The various Parfitt plans to replace the Network - largely sprinkling its staff and programmes around the evening schedules of local radios - will cost more and reach fewer listeners. For most radio stations, these set of figures are good news, with more radio listeners listening longer, providing a bigger cake to share. But for BBC local radio in a couple of significant areas, there are declines. Shropshire, Stoke, Hereford & Worcester, Gloucester, WM, Leicester, Lincolnshire and Humberside all edged down. Only Nottingham and Derby across the middle of the country improved. And there were dips for Newcastle and Tees. BBC London will be pleased with an increase, with Richard Desmond apparently hovering round Vanessa Feltz for a Channel 5 daytime show. BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Cymru are up; BBC Ulster down.
- There never seem to be quarterly listening figures for BBC Nan Gaidheal, the Scottish Gaelic service. Estimates of Gaelic speakers hover around 60,000 and in annual reports, the service claims to reach two thirds of them. Again, running costs are vague - I've seen a figure of £5.7m for 2009. Could be £142 per listener. The Asian Network is running at around £25 a head.
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