Fastest growing independent commercial radio station

• Boom Radio — the national DAB station targeted at baby boomers - has more than doubled its audience year-on-year, with 635,000 adults now listening each week and an estimated 1 million listeners every month, according to the latest official research*.
• Launched during the pandemic in 2021, the baby boomer music radio station broadcasts from veteran DJs’ homes, attics and garden sheds, with some coaxed out of retirement to join the station.
• Boom Radio founders have paid tribute to Paul O’Grady, whose Christmas Day show on Boom attracted record audiences**.

Boom Radio - targeting baby boomers and launched during lockdown by presenters broadcasting from their bedrooms and garden sheds has more than doubled its audience in the last 12 months.

According to the latest official research published today by Rajar, Boom Radio now has 635,000 listeners a week, with an estimated 1 million listeners tuning in across a month.

According to its founders, much of Boom’s success is thanks to its veteran presenters playing hit records from the 1960s and 1970s — unlike BBC Radio 2 which has increasingly moved to target a younger audience.  In the latest figures, Radio 2 has lost over a quarter of a million listeners aged over 50 in the last year***.

They also paid tribute to the late Paul O’Grady, whose hugely popular Christmas Day radio show was broadcast on Boom Radio for the first time last year — after thirteen years on BBC Radio 2.

“Paul’s Christmas special delivered record numbers for us and set us up perfectly for 2023 according to our own data**. So, thanks a million Paul and Malcolm, for everything you did for Boom,” said Phil Riley, the co-founder of Boom Radio. 

Boom Radio first aired on Valentine’s Day 2021 and was founded by Riley and David Lloyd — veterans of the British radio industry — who spotted a gap in the market for a new music radio station aimed at Radio 2 listeners.

Many of Boom Radio’s presenters — who have an average age of 68 and include David Hamilton, Graham Dene, Kid Jensen, Jenny Hanley, Nicky Horne and Judi Spiers — were persuaded out of retirement to help get the station on-air. Last December, former DJ Pete Murray, aged 97, broadcast a two-hour special with Hamilton, 84 — a combined age of 181. Angela Rippon, Simon Bates and Johnnie Walker have also made guest appearances.

BBC Radio 2 has seen an exodus of older presenters in recent months as the station targets a younger audience.

Key facts:

Boom Radio weekly audience reach grows to 635k. Up from 531k last quarter and 290k a year ago. (More than doubling year on year with 119% growth and 20% up on last quarter.)

Boom Radio total listening (number of people multiplied by how long they listen each week) grows to 6.16m hours. (Up 128% from 2.7m a year ago and up 6% from 5.82m last quarter.)

* Rajar – Boom Radio in Boom Radio UK TSA, Q1 2023. Weekly audience all adult reach - and predicted monthly cumulative audiences.

** Boom Radio streaming data

*** * Rajar – Radio 2 in Radio 2 UK TSA, Q1 2023. Weekly audience 50+ reach

More information: press@boomradio.co.uk

Listener comments: boom@boomradio.co.uk