Heart attack has Capital in a spin

CAPITAL today officially lost its position as London's favourite radio station for the first time in its 30-year life.

Flagship station 95.8 Capital FM posted its steepest quarterly fall in its share of total radio audience and commercial radio audience, losing top spot in London to Heart 106.2, the more middle-ofthe-road station launched just nine years ago.

The station's commercial audience share dived from 16.1% to 12.8% over the past year while Heart's rose from 11.5% to 13.2%. Capital shares dropped 7%, or 32 1/2p, to 447 1/2p while those of Chrysalis, Heart's owner, rose 1 1/2p to 206 1/2p.

The news comes at a key time for advertising sales as annual contracts for 2004 are negotiated in November. In the past, Capital has enjoyed charging a near-30% premium for ads over London rivals.

The collapse in its audience figures follows huge turbulence, with the impending departure of breakfast show stalwart Chris Tarrant, a reported £6m, three-year recruitment package for Johnny Vaughan to replace him, and strong criticism of management by DJ Neil Fox.

Capital chief executive David Mansfield, said: 'This is not disastrous, but it's not the best position to be in and I'd rather not be beaten by Heart. But we've put everything in place and got the best possible successor to Chris Tarrant.'

Still, Richard Huntingford, chief executive of Chrysalis, reckons Heart can inflict more pain.

He said: 'More than half Tarrant's audience is over 35 and, although Johnny Vaughan's a great broadcaster, he is not going to appeal to all of them.'

Capital did cling to the lead in terms of how many people tune in at least once a week, with 2.27m listeners against Heart's 1.95m.