Ustrell achieves his second best audience figure but Basté extends his lead

BarcelonaAt the end of 2011, Jordi Basté managed to lead morning audiences by a margin of only 1,000 listeners. Since then, he has maintained the top spot, with a tendency to distance himself from Catalunya Ràdio. The EGM wave that was made public this Tuesday marks a further step in this direction: if in July 2025 there was a difference of 283,000 listeners between Basté and Ricard Ustrell, on this occasion it is 287,000. However, the gap has been considerably reduced compared to the 352,000 followers there were in the previous wave, in April (comparisons, however, are made looking back a year, as radio has a strong seasonal component). In this way, El món a RAC 1 improves by 33,000 listeners and climbs to 745,000, while El matí de Catalunya Ràdio adds 29,000 by jumping from 429,000 to 458,000. It is the second-best figure for the Sabadell native, who achieves the best record for the public radio's morning magazine since the 2018-2019 season, although the bulk of the radio's listener growth has been capitalized by his rival. If we look at entire seasons, the average distance will have been 327,000 followers, while in the previous one it was 249,000.

Beyond their respective flagship shows, the trend for Catalan radio is good, as it remains stable, hovering around 1.7 million listeners: RAC1 adds 2,000 to reach 1,018,000 and remains a comfortable leader, while Catalunya Ràdio, with 672,000, drops only 8,000 and, overall, achieves its second-best season in history.

In the rest of the time slots, RAC1 registers an irregular wave, with generalized drops in which the only exception is Versió RAC1, which reaches 403,000 listeners (it had 336,000 a year ago). In contrast, La competència drops 22,000, to 167,000; Vostè primer goes from 142,000 to 140,000; the news program 14/15, also drops from 114,000 to 94,000; No ho sé loses 20,000 listeners, to 135,000, and Tu diràs drops 19,000, to 124,000.

Regarding Catalunya Ràdio, the problem is concentrated mostly in the evening. Tot costa suffers a hit, going from 132,000 last July to 85,000. Les dones i els dies by Montse Virgili drops from 73,000 to 52,000 followers, Catalunya nit goes down from 94,000 to 85,000 and La nit dels ignorants recedes from 57,000 to 38,000. In daytime slots, La solució also drops, which had it complicated because it has to be compared with the 96,000 from the highly anticipated farewell of El búnquer, which occupied that midday hour a year ago. Elisenda Carod registered 82,000 listeners this June with the new format, a significant improvement compared to the 65,000 with which she debuted. La tarda de Catalunya Ràdio this year debuted a presenter with Francesc Garriga, who hits the 133,000 that Carod precisely had a year ago in this slot, and improves results in the overall season. Before, Catalunya migdia rises from 132,000 to 157,000 listeners and can claim to be the most listened-to news program on the radio. La Renaixença, integrated as a late-breaking segment of El Matí de Catalunya Ràdio, closes its first season with 104,000 listeners and Que no surti d'aquí, which counts as a late-breaking segment of La Tarda de Catalunya Ràdio, registers 55,000 followers.

There are not only confrontations in the weekday slots: the weekend is also a battleground. Xavi Bundó's Via lliure on RAC1 continues to lead comfortably, with 574,000 listeners on Saturdays (+74,000 from a year ago) and 488,000 on Sundays (-28,000). On the other side of Diagonal, Roger Escapa achieves 348,000 on Saturdays (-13,000) and 337,000 on Sundays (+14,000) with El suplement. And in the major sports programs, there are also differing performances. The private station's Superesports rises significantly on Saturday, gaining 98,000 listeners, to 305,000 on Saturdays, but loses 50,000 on Sundays, down to 228,000. And on the public station, Tot gira improves by 38,000 followers on Saturdays, to 121,000, and on Sundays plummets from 209,000 to 68,000.

Beyond the classic rivalry between Catalunya Ràdio and RAC1, SER is the third most listened-to station in Catalonia, with 397,000 listeners, but it falls considerably compared to the 485,000 it had a year ago. Àngels Barceló's "Hoy por hoy" achieves 222,000 followers here. And Marina Fernàndez's morning magazine on SER Catalunya barely registers 6,000 connected. The fourth most listened-to station is COPE, with 250,000 (it had 269,000) and Onda Cero also declines from 157,000 to 152,000. Closing the top 5 is RNE, which obtains 98,000 followers in Catalonia (it had 105,000 in July 2025).

Finally, 3Catinfo (formerly Catalunya Informació) achieves 89,000 listeners in its audio version (it had 112,000), Catalunya Música climbs to 41,000 followers (from the 26,000 it had) and iCat marks 30,000 (a notable increase from 20,000).

Live broadcasts are from RAC1, podcasts are from Catalunya Ràdio

Leadership on the internet remains with RAC1 thanks mainly to live broadcasts. The Grupo Godó station has 313,000 listeners online, for 180,000 from SER, 156,000 from Catalunya Ràdio, and 112,000 from COPE. The ranking is explained by RAC1's clear dominance in live broadcasts, where it gains 254,000 followers, compared to 110,000 from SER, 96,000 from COPE, and 77,000 from Catalunya Ràdio, which is trying to ascertain if any technical condition is affecting this unusually low figure. Meanwhile, the public broadcaster dominates in the podcast sphere, with 90,000 daily listeners, followed by the 78,000 from SER, 73,000 from RAC1, and 20,000 from Onda Cero.

The music radio: Los 40 continue dominating

Once again, the first place among thematic stations goes to Los 40, which signs 332,000 listeners. Silver and bronze go to two sister stations, Flaix FM and Flaixbac, which obtain 276,000 and 266,000 followers, respectively. The list is completed with RAC105 (229,000), Cadena 100 (189,000), Los 40 Classic (185,000), Rock FM (160,000), Radio Teletaxi (151,000) and Cadena Dial (139,000).

Radio in Spain: There is no 'sorpasso'

In Spain, SER continues to lead and, moreover, gains some breathing room compared to Cope, which was dangerously close on its heels. The PRISA station registers 4,403,000 listeners, which is 148,000 fewer than it had a year ago. Meanwhile, the bishops' station loses 232,000 followers and remains at 3,581,000. Third is Onda Cero, from the Atresmedia group, which is the only one to grow, advancing from 2,231,000 followers to 2,265,000, and at a greater distance is RNE, which falls from 975,000 to 895,000.

Regarding the morning shows of Spanish radio, Carlos Herrera sees Àngels Barceló leave without being able to achieve the sorpasso that seemed feasible in the previous wave, when they were separated by just 107,000 listeners. SER achieves 3,095,000 listeners with the program Hoy por hoy, which is 527,000 more than Cope's 2,568,000 at those hours. Of course, both have fallen compared to a year ago, when they had 3,247,000 and 2,763,000 followers. The third contender is Carlos Alsina, the only one to improve, advancing from 1,638,000 listeners in July 2025 to the current 1,747,000. The announcer, however, has said he will not continue presenting the informational part of the program, considering himself "worn out." Meanwhile, Juan Ramon Lucas achieves 705,000 listeners with his morning show on the public broadcaster RNE, which is a lower figure than the 734,000 the program obtained a year ago, when Josep Cuní was still presenting it.