The biggest winner was George Hook, whose evening drivetime programme scored 88,000 listeners in its first set of national audience figures and seemed to have at least been partly responsible for a dip in figures for RTE's Drivetime with Mary Wilson and Matt Cooper at Today FM.

The two programmes saw their audiences drop 4.8% and 2.6% respectively.

But Paul McCabe at MCM Communications reckons that the real losers have been local radio stations.

"The 5% national reach of Newstalk corresponds with a 5% drop in the size of local radio audiences, " McCabe wrote in a research note. He also noted that Newstalk's audience, in Dublin and nationally, is dramatically skewed towards men.

Nationally men make up a whopping 72% of the audience for Newstalk. Men make up 52% of the audience for RTE Radio 1.

It is the polar opposite of Dublin stations 98FM and FM104, whose audiences skew more towards female listeners.

"The male skew is not surprising when you look at the lineup, " McCabe said.

"Hook's rugby background, Ger Gilroy, even Sean Moncrieff have a different sensibility. They're delivering an audience that is Dublin or urban, educated professional males. Which means for advertisers it's cars, telecoms and financial services. It's a comfortable niche delivering an audience we wouldn't otherwise reliably reach."

In another significant result from the radio listenership figures, Ray D'Arcy of Today FM ended the RTE hold on the top ten most popular programmes.