RAJAR: Sunrise Radio starts off well nationally

Sunrise Radio has started off well in its first lot of official listening figures since it went national in March.

According to official data from RAJAR for Q2/16, the popular commercial Asian radio station recorded a weekly reach of 388,000 listeners, with listening hours at 5.1 hours. No doubt, the station will be pleased with its first set of figures, which will guide it through to the next phase of its national strategy.

Sunrise Radio will be focusing on clinching the No.1 Asian radio station crown, which is held comfortably by the BBC Asian Network. This time around, the BBC Asian Network touched nearly 700,000 listeners per week – the highest ever for the station. Since its launch, Sunrise Radio has gone heavy with promotions on television channels and on-ground to make listeners aware of its national feed.

On a local level, Sunrise Radio remained steady with a weekly reach of 257,000 listeners – down slightly from 269,000 listeners in Q1/16. Its listening hours were up though from 3.4 hours to 3.6 hours this quarter. The only discouraging news for the station was that its listening hours were lower than any of its Asian rivals in this quarter: BBC Asian Network – 5.8 hours, Lycaradio – 5.5 hours, Dilse Radio – 7.1 hours and Panjab Radio – 5.0 hours.

Comparatively, Sunrise Radio’s reach was higher than this time last year when it managed to rake in 211,000 listeners.

Tony Lit, Sunrise Radio MD told BizAsiaLive.com, ���The release of Rajar Q2 2016 is testament to our hard work paying off. Sunrise Radio�۪s peak and daytime programming is the best in commercial Asian radio and because of this Sunrise remains leaps and bounds ahead of its nearest commercial Asian competitor. In London our weekly reach is up by over 21% year on year to 257,000 and nationally we now have a firm base, a weekly reach of 388,000 on which to build our audience, and we�۪re expecting steady growth over the next few quarters. Everyone at Sunrise Radio is excited about the future and the direction the radio station is heading.�۝

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

Also in RAJAR Q2/16 – Read these:
– BBC A Network delivers record ratings
– Dilse Radio breaks through 100k barrier
– Panjab Radio grows steadily