RADIO
Classic FM hits bum note with listeners as 400,000 turn off
Classic FM has fallen to its lowest audience levels on record after losing more than 400,000 listeners.
Britain’s most popular classical music station had 4.5 million listeners a week as of March this year, compared with 4.9 million in the three months to Christmas. Some 940,000 listeners have turned off since March 2020, a 17.1 per cent drop from the pre-pandemic figure of 5.48 million.
Classic FM has been shedding listeners since the turn of the century, when 6 million tuned in a week. This is its smallest audience in the 23 years that Rajar, the industry body, has been publishing quarterly figures, with over-65s recording the sharpest recent fall.
The station has made changes to its schedule to attract younger audiences. One show, called