Grimshaw’s audience gets a little grimmer

RADIO One presenter Nick Grimshaw has seen his audience fall further, leading the Radio 1 breakfast show to its lowest audiences for a decade.

The Oldham DJ has shed another 300,000 listeners and has slumped by more than 1.1 milllion since he took over the programme a year ago.

But Grimshaw was recruited to reduce the age profile of the listeners and the move appears to be working. Around 72 per cent of the deserted 1.1 million are reckoned to be over 30.

Ben Cooper, controller of Radio 1, said: “After the biggest set of changes to Radio 1 for a generation, we’re really happy the breakfast show sounds fresher, younger and more vibrant than ever.”

Grimshaw has 5.58 million listeners each week compared to 6.73 million a year ago under Chris Moyles.

Radio 1 — whose overall audience has dipped below that of Radio 4 once again — has not had a breakfast show audience this low since Sara Cox in 2003.

Grimshaw now trails his Radio 2 rival Chris Evans by 3.8 million listeners.