42,000 Radio Bristol listeners switching off

BBC Radio Bristol has lost 42,000 listeners in the last three months, according to new figures.

The latest figures from Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), which measures audience numbers, show that the station's weekly audience of 186,000 from the previous quarter has since fallen back to 144,000.

This is out of a possible total reach calculated by RAJAR of just over 900,000 people in the Bristol area.

This time last year, the station had 161,000 listeners. Recent changes in the presenter line-up have seen Peter Rowell and Graham Torrington leave the station while Richard Lewis has returned with a Sunday show after large public outcry.

Radio stations report on a weekly audience, with a listener being defined as someone who has listened for at least five minutes in any quarter-of-an-hour period across a week.

A BBC spokesman said: "The figures are disappointing, but they follow a period of unprecedented success for the station, which over the last year recorded its highest audience figures for six years.

"As always, we will study the data for ways to better serve our audience and their changing lifestyles, but we remain committed to offering quality local journalism, lively phone-ins and discussion of issues that matter."

Earlier this month sweeping cuts were announced across the BBC, some of which will see changes at the Bristol radio station.

Radio Bristol seemed to be the biggest loser in the region when bosses announced where the axe would fall as part of its nationwide cost-cutting drive.

Although £16 million worth of programmes are moving to Bristol from Birmingham, radio coverage in Bristol and the South West is being drastically cut back.

And it is now almost inevitable that the corporation will move out of its current headquarters in Whiteladies Road, Clifton.

There is also a big question mark over live coverage of Bristol's two football teams, with the budgets for broadcasting rights being cut.

Unions and journalists at the corporation have warned that strikes are the likely response to a total of 2,000 job losses across the country, as the corporation makes an overall 20 per cent budget cut.

The cuts – which will see 20 local news jobs cut out of a total of 210 in Bristol and the surrounding area – were announced to staff at the start of October.

Changes to local radio programming will also see BBC Radio Bristol offer a regional service during the afternoon, with Radio Bristol's drive-time, breakfast and mid-morning shows escaping the axe.

National programmes for the whole of England will replace local programmes during the evening.