GCap loses hold on London breakfast.

Time to wake up and smell the ratings as Rajars show historic changes in the league table

by Jim Larkin

The established order in the radio market has been turned on its head, with even the most prestigious breakfast shows in music radio changing places in the Rajar audience league table.

Not only is Chris Moyles now more listened to than any of the commercial stations' breakfast DJs in London, but Capital Radio's flagship breakfast offering has been overtaken in audience share by Heart 106.2 for the first time. Although overall Capital listening figures have been sinking for the last two years, this is a historic change, given the dominance Capital's Chris Tarrant breakfast show once exercised over the London market, with twice the listeners the same slot now pulls in.

Figures released last week reveal that, although more people are still tuning in to Johnny Vaughan's Capital Radio breakfast show, Jamie Theakston's rival show on Heart is winning more audience hours, with a 5.7% share compared to 5.6%.

"This is massively significant," says Virgin Radio programme director Paul Jackson. "The London marketplace as a whole hasn't really replaced Chris Tarrant, and we're seeing that all the breakfast show numbers are down, so we're left with a handful of OK shows rather than one great one."

Heart managing director Barnaby Dawe says, "We've tinkered with the show all the while rather than attempt a big revolution. To begin with we had two presenters who didn't really know each other and now they work well, ...