RTÉ has begun a strategic review of 2FM just a month after its 30th birthday, following a sharp decline in the number of people listening to the pop-based station.

The latest figures – released in May ? show a drop in listeners to many of the station's top shows.

Gerry Ryan's morning show lost 11,000 listeners while the Colm and Jim-Jim Breakfast Show lost 3,000.

"It would be very unreasonable not to be looking very closely at these figures and asking ourselves what needs to be done," Clare Duignan, RTÉ's managing director of radio, said at the time.

Described as a "structured review of its competitiveness", the analysis is being carried out by staff at the station as well as different divisions across RTÉ including marketing, publishing, sales and scheduling.

RTÉ has denied that any relaunch of 2fm will take place this year as a result of the review's findings, after rumours circulated that this could take place as early as September.

John Clarke, head of RTÉ 2fm, told the Sunday Tribune that, "ongoing reviews of output and competitiveness are common not only across all RTÉ platforms, they are standard practice in any business. Indeed, such a system of periodic review is what has kept RTÉ 2fm as Ireland's number one music and entertainment station.

"The current review has the same mandate as all previous reviews: to keep us at number one, to look at how we can best serve our audience, and ask ourselves what do we need to do to keep serving it."

An RTÉ spokesperson said similar reviews have been done every five years and only after it is completed will the state broadcaster begin to consider the findings of the report.