Ball leads Radio 1 revival as Evans slumps
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Your support makes all the difference.ZOE BALL has led a recovery in BBC radio's fortunes, adding half a million listeners to her breakfast show on Radio One, according to official data released yesterday.
The latest figures, compiled by Radio Joint Audience Research, show that Ms Ball, who took sole possession of the breakfast slot last September, helped Radio One to lift its audience to 11.4m listeners and its market share to its highest level for nearly two years. The revival coincided with the continuing slump at Chris Evans's Virgin Radio, which saw its audience fall by 130,000 to 3.7m.
Radio Four also appears to have emerged from a recent trough by adding 260,000 listeners to its audience. With Radios Two, Three and Five Live all holding firm, the BBC has narrowed the gap in audience share with commercial radio to 0.8 per cent.
Ms Ball's success appears to signal a new period of confidence at Radio One, and sets the seal on changes introduced by Andy Parfitt, who took over as controller last spring.
Chris Evans, who left the station's breakfast show two years ago, had vowed to "kill' Radio One when he took over at Virgin. Yesterday's figures show that, although he was able to boost his own breakfast-show audience of 2.2m by 2.3 per cent, he is outgunned by Ms Ball by more than two to one.
Radio Four is drawing much comfort from the figures, citing the increase in listening hours as validation for extensive schedule changes introduced by controller, James Boyle.
Although audience levels have not return to the eight-million mark - after losing 500,000 listeners in the previous quarter - its 7.94m listeners are tuning in on average for more than 11 hours a week, the highest level for more than three years."We're beginning to see the first signs that the changes are working the way we want them to," said a spokeswoman.
There was also encouragement for commercial radio. Classic FM enjoyed a record quarter, increasing its audience by 10 per cent year on year to 5.1m listeners.
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