More people tuning in
Devon's commercial station Radio Exe has more listeners than ever before.
New audience figures published on Thursday show 35,000 adults tune in every week. That's a rise of more than 50 per cent on the same period last year.
The results complete the first full year that Radio Exe has been measured on both FM and DAB. Even as DAB begins to become more established, about two-thirds of listening to the station continues to be on FM.
Roughly speaking, Radio Exe attracts an approximately equal proportion of men and women. About two-thirds of listening is by people between the aged of 45 and 64.
Managing director Paul Nero says: "The numbers don't show why people listen, only that they do - in larger numbers than ever. Anecdotally, people tell us the broad mix of music works better for them than a narrow range of tracks the national commercial brands play, and our emphasis on Devon's news hits the mark.
"Clearly what goes up can come down, so we never get unduly excited by one set of figures, but look for trends. We'll work hard this year to engage with our new listeners as well as those people who have been with us for some time."