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RAJAR: Sunrise Radio excels; Asian Network stays top

Sunrise Radio has done exceptionally well in both national and locally in latest audience figures from RAJAR for Q4/16.

The popular station, which celebrates one-year since going national, next month, has touched record heights with a weekly reach of 461,000 listeners. It was up from 326,000 listeners in Q3/16 – an increase in 157,000 listeners and a humongous 41.4% difference over the past three months. Its share has also increased from 0.1% to 0.2% this quarter.

Sunrise Radio has pushed its national launch with its marketing strategy to tie-up with major events across the country. Plus, there was a huge television campaign on major stations for most part of last year. No doubt the message has successfully reached thousands in the UK to switch on to Sunrise Radio’s national service.

Ecstatic at the news, Tony Lit, Sunrise Radio MD commented, “Sunrise Radio is changing the sound of Asian radio and continuing to lead the way in the Asian radio market. We are delighted with the latest set of Rajar figures released this morning, they are testament to our strategy and the hard work of everyone at Sunrise. We have grown our audience in London and nationally. The feedback and interaction we’ve received from listeners across the UK has been fantastic so this growth is of no surprise to us. This is why we became a national station, and this is just the beginning. I would just like to extend my gratitude to our business partners and our loyal, growing audience. Also well done Team Sunrise!”

BBC Asian Network remained the UK’s most listened to Asian radio station with not much movement in its weekly reach. The station’s power packed ratings continued with 632,000 listeners. It was down slightly from 662,000 listeners in Q3/16. It was up year-on-year by 12.3% but down quarter-on-quarter by 4.5%. Its share remained unchanged at 0.4% from its previous quarter.

The station had made several changes in this quarter including the axing of its weeknight Hindi show and presenter changes to some of its weekend shows. However, the full impact of the changes will reflect in the next set of RAJAR figures.

Ben Cooper (Controller Radio 1, 1Xtra & Asian Network) said, “Alongside Radio 1 and 1Xtra, the Asian Network has a responsibility to bring in new, young diverse audiences to the BBC and it’s great that over 600,000 listeners are tuning into the station each week.”

Other UK based Asian radio stations such as Radio XL in Birmingham, Sabras Radio in Leicester, Asian Sound in Manchester, Sunrise Radio in Yorkshire and other digital and community Asian radio stations do not subscribe to RAJAR.

RAJAR Watch Q4/16
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