Listener figures down but BBC Radio Shropshire still one of best performing stations

The Shrewsbury-based station achieved a 12.9 per cent listener share in the September to December period, according to newly released data from audience data body RAJAR.

Only two other local BBC stations on the British mainland enjoyed a better audience share – Lincolnshire and Merseyside.

In total, listeners tuned into the county-wide station for 1.045 million hours during the period, down from 1.286 million hours in the preceding quarter.

Its weekly reach also fell from 120,000 people to 105,000, 27 per cent of the 397,000-strong population.

However, in the same period in 2013, listeners enjoyed a combined 903,000 hours of radio to give it a listener share of 11 per cent. Its reach in that period was 108,000.

It remains the largest local station in the county, with Free Radio, the biggest commercial station in Shropshire, achieving a reach of 97,000 people, who listened to a combined 737,000 hours of broadcasting, to give it an audience share of 9.3 per cent.

The BBC's key national stations suffered declines in listening figures for their breakfast slots.

Last summer, Chris Evans' s BBC Radio Two breakfast show achieved a record high for audience numbers, but fell by 2.2 per cent year-on-year to 9.6 million listeners a week in the last quarter.

His Radio One equivalent Nick Grimshaw's weekly reach of 5.9 million reflected a 6.1 per cent year-on-year decline.

Radio Five's breakfast slot fell by 15 per cent to 2,223 million, and Radio Four's, including the Today Programme, by 5.2 per cent to 6,768 million.

However, most national BBC stations achieved increases in audience numbers when compared with the previous period,with Grimshaw adding 81,000 listeners, and Evans 29,700.

Radio One's overall audience share fell from 6.9 per cent to 6.6 per cent, while Radio Two lost 0.2 percentage points with a 17.6 per cent share.

Radio Three is at 1.1 per cent, the same as in 2013, while Radio Four fell from 12.5 per cent to 11.9. Radio Five's overall audience share slumped from 4.2 per cent to 3.5. BBC 6Music's overall audience share dropped from 1.7 per cent to 1.6 per cent.