National commercial radio increases share.

National commercial radio had a strong second quarter as its share of listening rose to more than 10 per cent.

The launch of several national digital channels and a rise in talkSPORT's share of listening helped boost national commercial radio, according to the Rajar figures for the second quarter.

TalkSPORT grew its share of listening hours from 1.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent, but still has fewer listeners than Virgin, which added 150,000 listeners to give it an audience of 2.6 million compared with talkSPORT's 2.16 million. Virgin's share of the London market grew to 20 per cent.

While Virgin maintained the same national share on the back of an increased audience, Classic FM, which has the largest share of any national commercial station, held the top spot despite a fall in its audience to 6.49 million.

Despite its increase in share, talkSPORT's chief executive, Kelvin MacKenzie, continued to criticise the Rajar system, calling it archaic and arguing: 'It underestimates our audience to a ludicrous extent.'

National commercial radio's share also benefited from several digital stations launching in the past year. However, local commercial stations were hit by a fall in share of listening despite a scramble for listeners in the London market after Johnny Vaughan arrived at 95.8 Capital FM.

Vaughan, who joined the station in April, suffered a fall in his audience of 13 per cent to 1.19 million compared with the first quarter when Chris Tarrant still hosted the show.