Beat 102 103 celebrates gaining another 14,000 weekly listeners in latest JNLR

Beat 102 103's weekly reach now stands at 172,000 listeners and 113,000 people tune every day. The flagship breakfast programme, Beat Breakfast with Niall and Sho, gained 11,000 listeners in the last 12 months growing from 45,000 to 56,000. Beat Drive with Darren and Megan, which airs from 3pm to 6pm, grew 12,000 listeners year-on-year as 49,000 now tune in daily. Beat's Most Wanted with Kirsten and Ava has gained 7,000 listeners since January 2024 growing to 24,000 listeners everyday.

The Takeover has more than doubled its daily listenership and has grown to 15,000 listeners in the last 12 months. Bring the Beat with Michelle Heffernan continues to hold impressive listenership daily at 44,000.

Welcoming the news, Beat CEO Gabrielle Cummins says it's a tremendous result for the regional youth station. "2025 marks Beat's 22nd year in broadcasting to people across the region and the station is very proud about always evolving. Our programming and creative teams continue to work towards what our listeners want to hear.

"In 2024, Sound and Vision funding brought us out and about to schools and communities in the South East. We were delighted to unveil our now multi-award winning Digital Media Literacy Road show which brought Beat presenters to secondary schools and started conversations with students about their space in the ever evolving digital realm. 

"The Sound and Vision projects from last year also included Beat's "Breakfast At Yours Roadshow" which allowed us to spend quality time with our listeners in their communities and hear about the hard work they do to contribute positively to the people in their locality. Here at Beat, we look forward to welcoming more new listeners in the future."

Key results from the latest JNLR/Ipsos survey

The average weekday audience listening at any time between 7am to 7pm is now at 1,095,000, the highest recorded average audience ever.

The data shows that despite competition from so much media, Irish people have a deep passion for live radio and listen in increasing numbers across broadcast and online platforms.

• 90% of all adults and 85% of 15–34-year-olds listen to radio every week.

• The daily listenership levels are also hugely impressive with the daily weekday audience now at 3.47 million, growing by 72,000 listeners.

• 69% of 15-34 year olds listen to radio each weekday, while daily weekday listening levels for the hard to reach 15-24 year old cohort is also very impressive with 65% listening each weekday.

• Listening levels to local and regional radio continues to be very strong with over 2.2 million adults listening to their local or regional station every single weekday.

• The Irish Audio Report which was published in November last year and measures all forms of audio listening, revealed there is universal listening to audio content with 97% of adults listening every week. Live radio dominates audio listening with a 76% share of total audio listening followed by music streaming with a 12% share while YouTube Music has a 6% share and podcasts a 3% share of audio listening.

• For the younger 15 to 34 age cohort, 22% of all their radio listening is now through a connected device with a smart speaker accounting for 8% of all 15-34 listening, while listening through a mobile device also accounts for 8% of all radio listening for this audience.

Ciaran Cunningham CEO Radiocentre Ireland said: “It is fantastic to see record audience numbers listening to Irish radio. Today’s figures are a great reminder that Irish radio is such a central part of people’s lives, with brilliant content being consumed by millions of listeners every single day.

"Radio is where we hear our favourite songs first, laugh with our favourite presenters, and stay connected with what are the important stories of the day. It’s an exciting time for brands to harness the power of radio and speak to millions of listeners across broadcast and online platforms”.