When Fru Hazlitt was in charge of the old Virgin Radio, increasing my online team to an amazing nine (plus four in sales), some of the programming team joked that we were changing from “a radio station with a website”, into “a website with a radio station”.

With that in mind, PaidContent posts Absolute Radio Trumpets Online Stats After Radio Listening Collapse which is an interesting read.

First, the RAJAR figures in context don’t look too bad – certainly not a ‘collapse’. Media UK’s audience graph shows a long decline for the station, but given that RAJAR only works on brand recall, and Absolute have a new brand, the last quarter’s dip in audience is not a surprise and fairly minor, all things considered.

But the interesting thing is their quote, from someone they think is Adam Bowie (and is actually Clive Dickens) saying: ”(We have) 500,000 total VIPs (users with online profiles) versus 275,000 for Virgin”

Over 500,000.

There’s no doubt that the figure for registered users includes some lapsed listeners, like this handsome fellow for example. There’s also no doubt that some of Absolute’s “lapsed VIP” work has contributed to this figure. But be very clear – 500,000 online VIPs, out of 1.8m who tune into the station every week, is a triumphant figure.

To put it in context, that’s 500,000 more than any BBC station (the BBC has no registration system of this kind). While Heart and Capital both have VIP clubs, given that until recently these have been simply newsletter signups too, I’d doubt the figures would be anywhere near. (A cursory Google search doesn’t discover any published data). But as a percentage of the audience – an older, thirty-something, male audience – it’s astoundingly high.

A website with a radio station attached? Given the amazing growth in online at the station, perhaps that’s not too far from the truth.

Photo: TheeErin. Used under licence.

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