Moyles coaxes breakfast radio listeners away from Wogan

Radio1 presenter Chris Moyles is almost neck and neck with Sir Terry Wogan in the battle for breakfast show listeners, figures showed today.

The Chris Moyles Show has 7.7million listeners each week, up from 7.3million, following the DJ's climb of Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.

BBC Radio2's Wake up to Wogan has 7.78million listeners, dropping from 7.96million last quarter and 8.1million last year.

Moyles took over the flagship slot in January 2004 as the self-styled "saviour of Radio1". He strongly denied reports on air last month that he was about to be axed from the station's breakfast show.

Figures released by British radio research body Rajar show that radio listening has reached an "all-time high" of 45.8million a week, or 90.2 per cent of the British population aged 15 and over.

The listener figures, for the first quarter of this year, are up by 251,000 and the overall number is the highest weekly reach recorded since research methods changed in January 1999.

BBC radio's reach is 33.81million, an increase on 33.52million last quarter but down from 34.22million last year. Its listener share is 56.3 per cent, up from 55 per cent last quarter but below the 56.8 per cent of last year.

Radio1 draws 11.07million listeners a week, up from 10.58 million last quarter, and its audience share, at 10.3 per cent, is up from 10.1 per cent last quarter.

Radio2 has a weekly reach of 13.46million, a slight fall from 13.47million last quarter. At 15.9 per cent, listener share is up from 15.8 per cent but down from 16.5 per cent last year. Radio3's reach rose to 1.99million, up from 1.98million last quarter, while Radio4's rose to 9.98million from 9.81million last quarter.

The Today programme, which has seen a surge in popularity linked with its coverage of the economic crisis, had a weekly reach of 6.69million listeners - up again from 6.42million last year.

Tim Davie, director of BBC Audio and Music, said: "These figures are excellent news for the radio industry, and digital radio in particular. Radio remains as relevant and popular as ever and the growth in digital listening, powered by DAB, is particularly encouraging."