Thursday, May 14th: Newstalk has seen a daytime surge in listenership, three months since the most significant schedule revamp in the station’s history, with today’s figures proving the refreshed line-up is landing strongly with listeners.
The latest JNLR results, JNLR/Ispos 2026-1 (April ’25 – March ’26) reveal Newstalk now informs and entertains a weekly audience of 846,000 (-3,000 BoB) and a daily audience of 466,000 (+5,000 BoB), driven by listener connection through compelling interviews, high-profile guests, and Newstalk’s continued commitment to delivering conversation that counts throughout the day.
It was good news for Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan, which saw a jump of 5,000 listeners, increasing its audience to an impressive 114,000. Meanwhile, Sean Moncrieff added 9,000 new listeners to his titular afternoon programme, now boasting an audience of 101,000.
Elsewhere on the daytime schedule, the three new shows that launched in February of this year recorded a very strong performance, reflecting the hugely positive audience and media reaction to the major new changes.
Newstalk Breakfast, now hosted by Anton Savage, listenership levels held firm at 158,000. Likewise, The Claire Byrne Show, the timeslot formerly hosted by Pat Kenny, retained its significant position in the market with an audience of 206,000.
Similarly, The Hard Shoulder, hosted by Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman, now attracts an audience of 153,000 (+4,000 BoB), connecting with listeners on their journey home, and delivering engaging content and companionship at a key point in the day.
The station’s weekend offering also delivered notable highlights. On Saturday there was a strong performance, where a major schedule change took place. Starting at a new time of 8am, Down To Business with Bobby Kerr reaches 126,000. At 10am, Pat Kenny, in his new weekend offering, entertains an audience of the second most listened to programme on the station. Tech Talk with Jess Kelly also showed a promising performance of 83,000, in its new home at midday.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna grew to 36,000 (+1,000 BoB) and Talking History with Patrick Geoghegan increased listenership to 17,000 (+2,000 BoB).
Newstalk’s market share jumped .3% in the past three months, now standing at 7.8% (+0.3% BoB) in a period where 3.46 million adults listen to radio each weekday in Ireland.
Eric Moylan, Managing Editor of Newstalk, said: ‘‘This is a really positive performance from our new schedule. To see strong market share growth so early is really encouraging and sets us up nicely for the year ahead, as the new line up beds in. There is tremendous work being done by our teams behind the scenes and I’ve no doubt we’ll see continued growth as we make radio that connects with our audience and delivers the stories and conversations that matter to them.”