Rajars: Grim figures

The new bunch of Rajar figures out today are showing there's been a drop in the Radio One breakfast show audience.

That, presumably, the network was expecting with the departure of Chris Moyles. The size of the drop, though, might come as something of a shock - a million have gone elsewhere.

In effect, the audience has reverted back to where it was before Moyles took over, as MediaGuardian explains:

The 28-year-old presenter, who took over from Moyles last September, shipped 900,000 listeners compared to the final three months of 2012 and was nearly a million down on Moyles' last quarterly audience of 6.7 million.

It is the lowest audience for the Radio 1 breakfast show since it was presented by Sara Cox in 2003. Cox had 5.5 million listeners in her last three months in the job before she was replaced by Moyles, who fashioned himself as the "saviour of Radio 1".

Radio One are making noises about how their focus is on the demographic, not the absolute numbers. Which is true - they're under orders to make their audience younger, and presumably this helps - but it still can't feel great to lose so many, so quickly.