News just in: Radio 4 is bigger than Tarrant in the capital

BBC Radio 4 has beaten Capital FM, home of the broadcaster Chris Tarrant, to become the most popular station in London, figures showed yesterday.

With Virgin still suffering post-Chris Evans turmoil and Capital FM numbers down, Radio 4 has established its position as favourite, Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar) revealed.

A surge of interest in news, which also boosted the London news stations LBC and ITN News Direct, may have helped Radio 4 reach 2.8 million listeners a week and a 17 per cent audience share, up from 15.9 per cent in the last quarterly figures.

The station has gained 330,000 listeners in London in the last year, while Capital FM has lost 270,000 – and its flagship breakfast show with Chris Tarrant lost 300,000 to 1.6 million amid rumours that he might quit. "I think listeners have been bombarded with so much speculation that Chris might have been leaving that they have tried other stations to see what is the alternative," a Capital FM spokesman said.

A Radio 4 spokeswoman said the BBC was "delighted" to have done so well in the toughest market in the UK. The station's audience across the whole country rose to 9.9 million, more than 500,000 up on last year, and with an increased share of all listeners at 11.8 per cent.

Yet while Capital suffered and Virgin FM in London fought back with modest growth (against serious losses on Virgin AM elsewhere in the country), other smaller London stations did well.

Kiss 100 and Magic 105.4 recorded significant gains. Kiss's audience went up 14.6 per cent in the three months to September to 1.7 million people a week. And Magic saw a 10 per cent rise in the last quarter to nearly 1.2 million a week.

There were also strong performances from Asian, black and Christian stations, such as Sunrise, Choice and Premier Christian Radio, suggesting that many listeners wanted culturally specific broadcasts.

Elsewhere, the BBC stations held their overall share of the audience at 52.6 per cent, though Radio 2's seemingly relentless rise towards the title of Britain's favourite station finally ended after a two-year run. It recorded a slight fall from the record 13 million listeners in the last quarter to 12.5 million, although listening figures are still up 263,000 on last year and two million on 2002. The success of the Proms and other live music events such as Womad saw the listening figures for Radio 3 increase over the summer, with its comparatively small audience up nearly 100,000 on last year to 2.2 million.

But the strongest classical station in terms of audience remained Classic FM at 6.7 million listeners a week, the same as the last quarter but up more than 250,000 on last year.

Despite a widespread belief that younger people are less interested in classical music than older generations, the station gained 100,000 listeners in the 15 to 44 age bracket. Darren Henley, the managing editor, said: "People listen to classical music as well as pop and rock – it is accessible to younger audiences."

At Radio 5 Live, the enormous boost provided by the summer's World Cup football broadcasts have been followed, predictably, by a drop from 6.7 million to 5.8 million.

The successes

TODAY Mandatory for the politically informed. It boosted its audience from 5.95 million last year to 6.4 million now.

WOMAN'S HOUR Presented in the main by Jenni Murray, the show combines cosy domesticity with the raunch factor. Items such as a segment where the comedian Jenny Eclair talked about why so many women choose to go blonde have raised listening figures from 2.42 million 12 months ago to 2.63 million.

THE ARCHERS Brian's affair boosted interest in the Ambridge soap from 4.57 million last year to 4.74 million.