Bauer celebrate radio success with GHR, Kiss, Magic and Hits

Bauer Media Audio UK is celebrating an impressive reach of 23.3m weekly listeners (+7.8% YoY) in the latest RAJAR results.

These Q4 2023 figures reinforce Bauer’s position as a leader in the industry, contributing significantly to the overall commercial radio growth of 2.8% YoY to 39.1m listeners.

Greatest Hits Radio remains the UK’s most listened-to commercial radio station and has gained 2.8m listeners in a year, while Bauer’s much-loved networks including Absolute Radio and Magic Radio also celebrate increases.

Ben Cooper, Chief Content & Music Officer, Bauer Media Audio UK:

‘Congratulations to Magic Radio which celebrates its new line up of presenters with a fantastic increase of over half a million new listeners. And a huge well done to Greatest Hits Radio up an amazing 2.8 million listeners in a year with Ken Bruce, Rossie and Simon Mayo getting record increases, helping the station achieve its own record audience of 6.8 million.’

Standout performances Bauer note are GHR which continues its meteoric rise, now reaching 6.8m weekly listeners (+69.8% YoY). Ken Bruce has a record audience of 3.8m a week (+117% YoY). Simon Mayo has the UK’s No.1 commercial Drivetime show with a record 2.5m listeners (+71% YoY). Rossie at Breakfast has a record 2.8m weekly listeners (+71% YoY).

The Hits Radio Network reaches 6.3m a week, with flagship station Hits Radio reaching 1.4m listeners (+6.6% YoY). The Absolute Radio Network reaches 5.3m weekly listeners (+1.3% YoY). The main station is up 11.0% YoY to 2.4m and Absolute Radio Country has had another great book, up 44.8% YoY to 407k. The Dave Berry Breakfast Show reaches 2.2m listeners (+3.1% YoY).

The KISS Network reaches 4.2m, within which KISSTORY continues its reign as the UK’s biggest commercial digital station with 2.4m weekly listeners (+4.5% YoY). The Magic Radio Network has increased its audience to 4.2m (+10.0% YoY), with the main station Magic Radio up to 3.4m (+18.2% YoY), with another record for Magic Soul with 502k listeners (+20.1% YoY).

Once again Bauer celebrates 81% of listening via digital devices and is home to three of the Top Five digital commercial stations, #1 KISSTORY, #2 Absolute Radio and #4 Absolute 80s. It’s also ahead of the market in terms of listening via connected devices, with Bauer reporting 30% of listening via smart speaker, web and app.

Simon Myciunka, CEO for Bauer Media Audio UK:

‘At Bauer Media Audio UK, we’re passionate about delivering value to our audiences and it’s fantastic to see this mirrored in our year-on-year increase of 7.8% in reach and 13.2% in hours.

‘We are attracting more listeners, who are listening for longer thanks to our high-quality content and investment in presenter line-up. I’m really proud of our teams that have contributed to this sustained growth throughout the last 12 months.  Already home to the UK’s most listened to commercial station and with a focus on future growth, who better to partner with than Bauer?’