Radio 1 up, Evans is down

THE DJ Zoe Ball got an early wedding present yesterday with new figures showing an increase of 200,000 listeners to her breakfast show. But it was bad news for Virgin Radio's Chris Evans, who lost nearly a third of his London audience.

Virgin also saw an overall drop in its share of listeners from 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year to 2.2 per cent in the following three months, according to figures from the Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd.

Ball, the Radio 1 star who is due to marry the DJ Fat Boy Slim later this month, saw her audience up from 6.68 million to 6.88 million over the same period, although her audience dropped by almost 100,000 in London.

The Capital FM DJ Chris Tarrant won the overall ratings battle in London with an increase of 63,000 listeners for his breakfast show during the last quarter.