Radio is more popular than ever since the pandemic – but some of our listening habits have changed

The latest figures reveal some interesting trends about what we’ve been tuning into since Covid-19, writes Chris Stevenson

BBC Radio 4, home of ‘Woman’s Hour’, continues to have a steady stream of listeners at 10.8 million a week (BBC Radio 4/PA)

There were plenty of interesting things to pull out of the latest data on radio listening figures produced by the industry organisation Rajar.

While stations, and Rajar, have been at pains to point out that the data is not comparable to pre-pandemic figures thanks to changes in the methodology, there are definite trends worth taking away.

First off, the entire British speech radio market seems to have increased since the last batch of figures – BBC Radio 4 has been steady at 10.8 million listeners a week, while Radio 5 live has lifted from an audience of 5.2 million to 5.9 million. LBC, which has moved to a national footing is attracting three million listeners. The BBC’s local and regional output also jumped to a combined 9.2 million weekly listeners – compared with 7.4 million in the equivalent pre-Covid time period.