BBC Radio Scotland gets tens of thousands of new listeners

BBC Radio Scotland has gained nearly 80,000 additional listeners over the past year, according to the latest radio listening figures.

The station now has an average reach of around 948,000, up 9 per cent on last year’s figure of 870,000, statistics issued by the Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar) body.

The latest quarterly analysis by the organisation, the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK, is the first to take account of sweeping schedule changes at the station.

The revamp, which came into force earlier this year, introduced a new Sunday morning edition of Good Morning Scotland and an extended phone in show hosted by Kaye Adams.

In a message to staff, Jeff Zycinski, head of radio at BBC Scotland, said: “This set of results is the first to fully reflect the schedule changes that were introduced between March and June, and it’s clear that the new programmes and formats have had a positive impact.”

However, the station to enjoy the biggest increase was the now defunct XFM Scotland, which registered a 41 per cent increase in its average reach from 39,000 to 55,000 listeners over the same period.

The station, which previously aired as 96.3 Real XS Glasgow and Q96, ceased broadcasting last month after its owner, Global Radio, handed the licence back to the regulator, Ofcom. The biggest decline in listeners came at Tay 2, where the average reach fell by 32.5 per cent from 77,000 to 52,000.