Radio Exe has largest-ever audience

Devon station continues to grow

One of the UK's few remaining independent commercial radio stations has enjoyed a surge in listening. 

Devon's Radio Exe now has around 75,000 listeners a month and has surpassed 300,000 weekly listening hours for the first time.

Independent data from Ipsos Mori on behalf of industry body Rajar for the 12 months from April 2023 measures only the eastern part of Radio Exe's transmission area, which includes Exeter, Mid and East Devon, Teignbridge and Torbay.

It shows listening to the station has increased 50 per cent in the past year.

Separately, Radio Exe's own proprietary data, which assesses digital listening on apps and online, but not FM and DAB digital radio, shows that listening to Radio Exe's output in the Plymouth/West area is now about the same as digital listening in the Exeter/East part of the county, at around 20,000 unique listeners a month.

The station puts the success down to its commitment to staying local at a time when other broadcasters are withdrawing programming from the county. 

Radio Exe’s managing director Paul Nero says: “As other stations have cut local programmes, we have increased ours, including more Devon stories in our local news bulletins and presenters who exclusively live in, and love, Devon.

"All our key shows now have larger audiences, who are embracing the fun and interaction of our breakfast show from Exeter with Matt Rogers, our daytime programme from Plymouth with Neil Walker, and the informative and entertaining drivetime show with Ashley Jeary, whose show has grown the most in the latest survey.  And new talent in the form of Jamie Taylor and Brad Hardware are going great guns too."

"We'd like to welcome our new listeners, thank our loyal ones who have stuck with us over the years, and say thank you to our advertisers, without whom we wouldn't be able to offer the breadth of content we do. The good news for them is that they can now reach more people, even more affordably."

The new audience figures come as Radio Exe extends into new services. A retro music station, Flashback, playing tracks from the fifties to early eighties launched earlier this year. In the past few weeks, a speech station called Devoncast Radio took to the air. And the station is the leading partner in three DAB digital radio networks, covering Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay/Teignbridge, in collaboration with community stations in those areas.

Last month, it announced it is working on plans to apply for a similar service for East Devon and is inviting organisations that wish to launch new radio stations to that part of the county to get in touch.

Radio Exe also provides Devon's Local Democracy Reporting Service, funded by the BBC, which supplies content about local politics to media partners across the county.