Classical Music Radio

How Britain fell out of love with classical music radio

"The latest figures from industry body Rajar reveal that in the third quarter of this year, Radio 3, which had 2.165 million listeners this time last year, had lost 300,000 in four months, falling by 15 per cent to 1.71 million. 

"Classic FM – which was established in 1992 and within months had more than double Radio 3’s listeners – also suffered a fall, down 6.5 per cent to 4.66 million, which is its smallest number for two decades.

"Meanwhile, Scala Radio, established in 2019, dropped 9.5 per cent from 293,000 to 263,000: quite a collapse from 400,000 listeners in the fourth quarter of 2021."