As you’ll have already seen on the blog, the most recent RAJAR figures were published first thing this morning.

This morning we went through the results with everyone at Absolute Radio and you can see the slides we went through below.

Most of the core findings of RAJAR are detailed in our press release.

And if you read the online versions of the trade press, there’s been plenty of coverage with other stations publicising their good news stories.

So here are a few interesting findings we’ve spotted so far this time around, including some more Absolute Radio stats:

• All radio reach has risen from last quarter, after an all time record two quarters ago.
• The average number of hours that our listeners spend with Absolute Radio is now at an all time – 7.6 hours a week. And yes, that includes this station’s predecessor. It’s a record for nearly 17 years of station history.
• Absolute Radio has seen growth in listening coming from men and from 35-54 year olds.
• Listening to both Christian and Geoff increased over the past quarter.
• Commercial Radio narrowed the gap on the BBC a small amount with a 42.6% share compared with the BBC’s 55.2%. This in spite of some of the larger groups seeing some falls this quarter in overall listening.
• Classic FM has seen some decreases, although TalkSport has seen another good RAJAR.
• In London, LBC has had a great result, which we think is probably down to their investment in talent. Capital has seen a big fall in hours, although Johnny Vaughan has done very well at breakfast and is the clear leader at that time in London.
• Otherwise in London things are as tight as ever, with Capital, Heart, Magic and now LBC all battling for top spot depending on measure. Magic can claim to have most listening (time actually spent hearing the station), while Heart will claim more listeners. But this is a game which is like to change every quarter.
• Absolute Radio’s digital listening continues to grow, and at a time when the future of radio in the UK is being decided in Parliament, it’s worth noting that 24.8% of a total of 32% of digital listening to all Absolute Radio services is now via the DAB platform. We’re strong proponents of digital television and especially the internet, but it’s clear that currently DAB is the preferred way to listen to Absolute Radio.
• If you look at our National service, that 32% rises to a colossal 54% of listening via a digital platform; 42.5% coming from DAB. If you’re still listening to us via AM outside London, it really is worth the modest investment to get a DAB digital radio.
• Some have noted that our digital gains are against a backdrop of digital listening falling fractionally overall this quarter from 21.1% to 20.9%. It’s worth noting that this isn’t a statistically significant decrease – being just 0.2% down – but of course we’d love to see another increase next time around. The figure is up from 18.3% a year ago, so the trend remains upwards. And the number of people living in households with a DAB set has increased from 15.1m to 17.1m over the same period. As ever, lots of DAB digital radios were sold this Christmas, so from Q1 2010 more listening than ever is likely to come from DAB and other digital platforms.