Ear ear

The continuing growth of Greatest Hits Radio, driven first by the acquisition of Ken Bruce, then Simon Mayo, is the big story of the latest quarterly audience figures. Some margin of their increase in year-on-year reach is because they've added smaller local stations to the brand, but now, overall, they've just eclipsed Radio 1. 

Overall, BBC Radio services have lost a million listeners year-on-year, all gone to commercial. More worryingly, the share of hours listened has moved downwards at the BBC, from 46.3% a year ago, to 43.4% in this latest quarter. 

Other landmarks: "Online" listening has overtaken listening on AM and FM, with a share of 27.8%, compared with 27% for the things we called radios.

Radio 5Live has dipped below 5m, for the first time since September 2019, not helped by the weeknight availability of live football - which has, in turned boosted TalkSport. 

The reach of BBC Local Radio in England is down 9.6% year on year, to 4.77m. Those who've stayed are listening less - hours are down 20.5% year on year. 

Reach to Radio Cymru is down 13%; to Radio Wales, it's up 5.7%; Radio Scotland's reach is down 5.7%, and to Radio Ulster, up 1.3% - all year on year.