Chris Moyles’s much-hyped return to radio provided a 39% boost in listeners and gave Radio X its best breakfast show figures in London in almost a decade.
Moyles was the star signing among a number of high profile names, including Johnny Vaughan and Vernon Kay, brought on board to launch Radio X, which replaced 20-year old Xfm, last September.
Moyles, who fronted a controversial big-budget TV campaign promoting the station, fuelled a 39% increase in listening to Radio X’s breakfast show in London with an average audience of 300,000 in the last three months of 2015.
It is the biggest audience the station has attracted for its breakfast show since Alex Zane back in the first quarter of 2007.
Moyles was ousted from BBC Radio 1 almost four years ago in favour of Nick Grimshaw, who has had a tough time reversing a major decline in audience since taking over.
Grimshaw’s London listening figures were not hurt by the return of Moyles, with a slight 1.5% quarter-on-quarter increase to 1.7 million, according to the latest figures from official body Rajar.
Overall, Moyles’s Radio X breakfast show remains a minnow in London compared to not only the BBC but also his commercial rivals.
Capital’s breakfast show remained comfortably the most popular in London boosting its daily audience to an average of 1.08 million.
Bauer-owned Magic was second in the capital with 935,000.
Stablemate Kiss was third at 872,000, Heart was fourth at 741,000.
LBC rounded out the top five with an average of 695,000 listeners.
All the major commercial radio stations substantially improved their breakfast show audiences after experiencing a tough third quarter.
