CHRIS MOYLES - MOYLES, WOGAN LOSE LISTENERS

MOYLES, WOGAN LOSE LISTENERS

BBC DJs Chris Moyles and Terry Wogan have both lost listeners in the last three months, even as digital radio usage grows, according to new figures released today.

Statistics from Radio Joint Audience Research show that around 153 million hours per week were spent listening to the radio in the three months ending in September 2007, with an increasing amount of those hours via a digital radio.

But while Wogan remains the most popular breakfast show presenter, his audience fell by 240,000, down to 7.68 million in the third quarter of the year.

And Moyles - soon to start his breakfast show at 06:30 BST, half an hour earlier than in previous years - lost 280,000 listeners in the last three months, with his audience down to 7.26 million.

The rivals' shows were not the only programmes to lose listeners, with BBC Radio 4's Today programme seeing its audience fall by 276,000.

Though overall listening figures fell by 760,000 in the last three months, down to 44.9 million, digital radio usage grew, with almost nine per cent of listening hours via a DAB digital radio.

Three per cent of listeners tuned in via digital television services such as Sky and Freeview, while 1.6 per cent listened online.

More than nine per cent of people over 15 years old used their mobile phone handsets to listen to their favourite shows, a five-fold increase in the last five years.