The BBC has haemorrhaged local radio listeners, according to recent figures that show dozens of stations reporting losses in 2023.
Data from the Radio Joint Audience Research has found that commercial stations ate into the broadcaster’s airwave dominance last year as the BBC enforced radio service cuts.
Nearly two dozen of 39 stations have reported losing listeners, with losses in the capital proving especially heavy.
BBC Radio London lost approximately 12 percent of its listenership in 2023, roughly one in eight.
The total translates to nearly 100,000 fewer people, and other BBC stations have fared similarly.
Radio Joint Audience Research found that, in the last few months of 2022, BBC Radio London boasted 625,000 weekly listeners.
During the same period in 2023, that number had dropped by 77,000 to just 548,000.
However, the worst-performing station was BBC Radio Berkshire, which lost 38 percent of its listeners, down from 118,000 at the end of 2022 to 73,000 at the end of last year.
Overall, the BBC lost nearly 800,000 local radio listeners last year, a figure split between 21 stations.
The stations that lost weekly listeners – comparing the last three months of 2022 and 2023 – are as follows:
BBC Radio Merseyside: 179,000 weekly listeners (-25 percent from 240,000)
BBC Radio Gloucestershire: 49,000 weekly listeners (-34 percent from 74,000)
BBC Radio Cornwall: 80,000 weekly listeners (-31 percent from 116,000)
BBC Radio Cymru: 95,000 weekly listeners (-30 percent from 135,000)
BBC Radio Bristol: 78,000 weekly listeners (-27 percent from 107,000)
BBC Radio West Midlands: 193,000 weekly listeners (-19 percent from 239,000)
BBC Radio Kent: 142,000 weekly listeners (-19 percent from 175,000)
BBC Radio Humberside: 101,000 weekly listeners (-17 percent from 122,000)
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: 67,000 weekly listeners (-13 percent from 77,000)
BBC Radio London: 548,000 weekly listeners (-12 percent from 625,000)
BBC Radio Leicestershire: 106,000 weekly listeners (-11 percent from 117,000)
BBC Radio Devon: 136,000 weekly listeners (-9 percent from 150,000)
BBC Radio Surrey/Sussex: Combined 192,000 weekly listeners (-9 percent from 210,000)
BBC Radio Tees: 100,000 weekly listeners (-8 percent from 109,000)
BBC Radio Sheffield: 147,000 weekly listeners (-8 percent from 160,000)
BBC Radio Lancashire: 150,000 weekly listeners (-8 percent from 163,000)
BBC Radio Manchester: 181,000 weekly listeners (-7 percent from 194,000)
BBC Radio Lincolnshire: 66,000 weekly listeners (-6 percent from 70,000)
BBC Radio Nottingham: 124,000 weekly listeners (-5 percent from 131,000)
BBC Radio Shropshire: 65,000 weekly listeners (-3 percent from 67,000)
BBC Radio Derby: 127,000 weekly listeners (-1,000 from 128,000)
BBC Radio Somerset was the only station to see no change in its weekly listeners at the end of 2023, with 55,000 reported, the same as in 2022.
The following stations saw their listener share increase in 2023:
BBC Radio Stoke: 118,000 weekly listeners (+1,000 from 117,000)
BBC Radio York: 60,000 weekly listeners (+1,000 from 59,000)
BBC Radio Scotland: 800,000 weekly listeners (+20,000 from 780,000)
BBC Radio Essex: 138,000 weekly listeners (+4,000 from 134,000)
BBC Radio Leeds: 178,000 weekly listeners (+6,000 from 172,000)
BBC Radio Cumbria: 85,000 weekly listeners (+3,000 from 82,000)
BBC Radio Ulster: 506,000 weekly listeners (+7 percent from 475,000)
BBC Radio Newcastle: 214,000 weekly listeners (+11 percent from 192,000)
BBC Radio CWR: 64,000 weekly listeners (+12 percent from 57,000)
The data showed that, over the last year, fewer than seven million people tuned into BBC stations every week, a change that came as the corporation cut its local radio output.
Last year, it shared more programmes across the 39 local stations, with some presenters in the process of being relieved from their posts.
The corporation has completed plans to create 11 new investigative reporting teams across the country and increased its daily news provision for 43 local areas.
The BBC also plans to launch locally dedicated websites covering Bradford, Wolverhampton, Sunderland and Peterborough.
