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Moyles adds listeners in spite of Auschwitz gaffe
Rashid Razaq29.01.09
RADIO 1 DJ Chris Moyles has increased his listening figures despite controversial remarks about Auschwitz he made on his breakfast show.
He recorded 7.3 million listeners - up from 7.02 million in the previous quarter and a slight drop from 7.31 million the previous year.
Earlier this month, the BBC expressed regret over his jokes about the concentration camp and gay singer Will Young.
Official Rajar listening figures published today also showed that Capital FM's Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon have held on to their number one commercial breakfast slot for London.
The 6am to 9am programme is still ahead of rivals Heart FM and Magic FM. The pair draw 981,000 listeners each morning. Capital has held on to the number one position for the second consecutive quarter since Snowdon took over from Denise Van Outen.
Snowdon, a former model, has juggled radio hosting with her stint on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. Vaughan said: "I'm chuffed Capital FM has held onto number one breakfast show slot in London. We will have Lisa Snowdon dancing on air with the news".
Heart has put on an extra 100,000 daily listeners to draw 868,000 to its breakfast show each morning. Magic, in third place, attracts 813,000 while Kiss has seen the single biggest rise of nearly 20 per cent, now reaching 722,000. Nationally, Britain's most popular breakfast radio programme remains Wake Up With Wogan on Radio 2 with 7.96million listeners.
BBC Radio2 is the most popular station in the country, drawing 13.4million listeners, or 15.8 per cent of the audience share. BBC Radio4 has a 12.4 per cent with 9.81 million listeners, and Radio1 on 10.1 per cent with 10.5million.
Figures for daily listeners
Capital 95.8 FM - 981, 000
Heart 106.2 FM - 868, 000
Magic 105.4 FM - 813, 000
Kiss 100 FM - 722, 000
LBC 97.3 FM - 398, 000
Choice FM -324, 000
Smooth Radio - 293, 000
XFM 104.9 FM -251, 000
Source - Rajar
Reader views (3)
Probably the increase was due to the long break he took, I started listening around the Christmas period when the stand-ins were good natured and just DJing rather than Egoing.
- Steve, London
More listeners or not, Moyles is a talentless, fat. unknowledgeable geek, who, like Jonathan Ross believes a big salary comes with more obscenity being broadcast
- Keith Price, Luton, England
I can't stand Moyles, but I agree with his comments that caused all the fuss, its the usual crew kicking up a stink, and rubbing our noses in it.
- Kedge, marlboro wilts
