THE writing was on the wall with the departure of the station’s biggest names in recent months, but now the numbers are finally in - and they don’t make good reading for bosses at BBC Radio 2.
How bad is it?
BBC Radio 2 has lost nearly 600,000 listeners in the space of a year where the station’s biggest names - including Steve Wright and Ken Bruce - departed or announced plans to leave.
But did they jump or were they pushed?
Helen Thomas took over as the new head of the station in May 2020 with an apparent desire to draw “mood mums” to listen - women in their 40s who are said to like listening to the likes of Sara Cox in the drivetime slot - and has pushed more new music on the playlists in the meantime.
In September, after more than 24 years doing his programme, Steve Wright, 68, left, saying Ms Thomas had told him she “wanted to do something different in the afternoons”. He was replaced by Radio 1’s Scott Mills.
Wright wasn’t alone?
Amid accusations of ageism at play, other DJs have departed, including Paul O’Grady, 67 who was unhappy after a schedule shake-up which saw him share the slot with another presenter, comic Rob Beckett, with each hosting their shows alternately for 13 weeks at a time. Vanessa Feltz, 60, also left, saying older presenters are “not valued in the same way”. Last summer, Craig Charles, 57, saw his Saturday night House Party show axed after eight years.
And then…?
Just last month, Ken Bruce announced he is leaving the BBC after more than 40 years at the end of March. The 72-year-old Scot had the most popular radio show in the country with around 8.5 million listeners to his mid-morning slot a week. It was reported just this week that he left because he felt "unloved" by bosses with a source saying they had "definitely wanted to renew his contract but because of a mix-up nobody told him”.
Number crunching?
Radio 2 is still the UK’s most popular radio station but its overall weekly audience has fallen to 14.29million - a drop of 580,000. Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show has seen a drop in listeners - down 359,000 in the last quarter of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021, while Ken Bruce's listenership is also down - although his show is still the most listened to on the station with 8.2million, according to data from radio audience measurement body Rajar.
Where are they all going?
Now branded "Radio 2 refugees", they have jumped ship to Greatest Hits Radio, which will be the new home of Bruce's morning show from April, where he will take his iconic PopMaster quiz with him. The station is also home to former Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo, who left after he had a co-host, Jo Whiley, added to his drivetime slot.
GHR has expanded its audience by nearly a third in the last year to 4.3 million a week. Boom Radio, launched by veterans to target the “baby boomers” born between 1946 and 1964, is also on the rise, attracting more than half a million listeners each week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here