It was party time for presenters at Cool FM today after it was revealed the station has swept the board to reach No.1 in Northern Ireland on all counts.
For almost two years Cool FM has been outperforming its nearest rival (BBC Radio Ulster) in audience terms but for the first time ever Cool has also overtaken the broadcaster for the total length of time people spend listening.
According to data just released by RAJAR, Cool FM is now the Number one radio station in Northern Ireland on all measurables for the first time since launching in 1990.
The figures show that a record 538,000 listeners now tune into Cool FM for 5.1million hours each week across Northern Ireland.
Changes in platform listening over the past couple of years have helped Cool FM find new audiences. Almost a quarter of the station’s audience listen on a smart speaker such as Alexa while 61% of Cool’s total audience now listen via a digital platform.
Content Director Stuart Robinson says radio in Northern Ireland has never been more popular: “Radio is proving to be such a timeless medium and, in many ways, you could call it the ‘original on demand service’. When people need cheered up, entertained or informed, their ‘go to’ is still the radio.
“The stations that are doing well in an increasingly competitive and crowded audio market are the brands that have a clearly defined offering which is compatible with the audience’s expectation at any given minute of any day.
“The other major factor particularly in Northern Ireland, is the emphasis on ‘local’. Relevancy is at the heart of what we do and that is why time and time again NI polls top across the UK in terms of its local media consumption. These latest figures show that a record 94% of Northern Ireland’s adult population consume radio at some point over the course of a week (almost 1.5million people)
“For a commercial station such as Cool FM to achieve these record figures in 2024, while simultaneously outperforming its richly resourced competitors, is truly a career high. We’re all so thankful for the love and the support of our amazing listeners and advertisers”.
According to RAJAR, Bauer Media Northern Ireland (Cool FM and Downtown owners) are now clear market leaders now with over 30% share of NI’s radio market. Bauer’s local NI stations have just recorded 856,000 listeners who consume 9.6milllion hours of the stations each week – the biggest ever listenership.
The standout radio show in Northern Ireland is Cool FM’s Breakfast show with Pete, Paulo and Rebecca. The popular trio now have their best ever set of results, reaching 349,000 listeners and almost 1million listening hours each week. This means no other radio show in the country has more listeners or more listening.
Meanwhile Cool FM shows including mid-morning with PK, afternoons with Curtis McCosh and John Kearns at Drive occupy the No.2, 3 and 4 positions respectively with 325,000, 301,000 and 279,000 weekly listeners.
Collectively this gives Cool FM unprecedented ownership of four of the top five highest rated radio shows in Northern Ireland. Even when considering the much coveted, peak time 9.00-10.30am timeslot, Cool FM has more listeners than any other local radio station.
At the weekend, Cool FM’s flagship ‘Cool Saturday Show’ also reported a record listenership figure of 179,000 making it NI’s Number one weekend radio show with a listenership 2.5 times bigger than its nearest commercial competitor.
And, according to the most recent RAJAR data, Cool FM’s sister station Downtown Radio also reported its highest listenership in a decade and highest listening hours in over 20 years. The Downtown Network now reaches 380,000 people across Northern Ireland each week achieving record listening hours of 4.2million.
