Radio Exe shines as BBC Radio Devon declines

New audience figures show that more people than ever are listening to Devon’s Radio Exe.

Independent research from Ipsos MORI/Rajar for the year to the end of June reveals that around 85,000 adults 15+ tune to the station every month in the east of the county. 

On top of that, proprietary data shows a further 20,000 listeners select Radio Exe Plymouth’s stream. Listening on digital radio in Plymouth and south east Cornwall isn’t measured.

It means Radio Exe has about 105,000 listeners a month, plus an unknown number in Plymouth and the surrounding area.

All the station’s key shows have more listeners.

Meanwhile, latest data from Rajar shows a decline in listenership for BBC Radio Devon, with the station attracting 136,000 weekly listeners in the last quarter of 2023 - a nine per cent decrease from the same period in 2022, which itself saw a drop from 176,000 weekly listeners the year before.

Radio Exe’s Managing Director Paul Nero said: “We’ve invested more in local programming as other stations have cut back. Like our music output, our team spans the decades too, from teenagers to those who it may be polite to say have qualified for their bus pass.  But all have the energy and passion to reflect our audience, and because we all live in, and love, Devon, we hope we hit the mark with our output.

As well as its main station, Radio Exe also provides news stories about local politics to other media organisations in the South West, in an initiative called the Local Democracy Reporting Service, funded by the BBC. Its speech station, Devoncast Radio, is available to around half of Devon’s population on digital radio, and to everyone through its own website and the Radio Exe app. 

Its vintage music station, Flashback, covers music from the fifties to the eighties. Ignite Radio is its nineties’ music station. And Radio ExeMas launched at half-Christmas. You can guess what that does.