ICI Première did not have the same success as last year with its summer programming. Its Montreal station even slipped to third place among the most listened-to frequencies in the metropolis. The audience for 98.5 FM, still in first place, is fairly stable.
This is what is revealed by data compiled by the firm Numeris between the end of June and the end of August, which roughly corresponds to the summer season in the Montreal radio market.
During this period, ICI Première declined in almost all time slots compared to last summer. Maxime Coutié, who replaced Patrick Masbourian once again this year at the helm of the morning show, did less well than last year. Radio-Canada radio lost more than three percentage points in its morning market share this summer. The gap widened with 98.5 FM, which once again relied more on Louis Lacroix to host its morning show.
The steepest drop for ICI Première is observed in the Saturday morning time slot, where Isabelle Craig and Catherine Perrin took turns this summer replacing Franco Nuovo. The summer format of Draw me a morning suffered a seven percentage point drop in market share.
Small consolation for Radio-Canada: Monic Néron did rather well in the return show during the week. The 15-18which is hosted by Annie Desrochers in the regular season, even slightly increased its market share (+1.2) compared to last summer.
Across all programming, ICI Première captured just under 15% of the listeners in the French-speaking Montreal market this summer, moving into third place among the most tuned stations. In Numeris data released Thursday, ICI Première is outpaced not only by 98.5 FM, but also by Rythme.
Cogeco’s music station, which recently made headlines for firing its star host Patricia Paquin, is experiencing difficulties in its regular programming. But in the summer, it continues to post results that are, to say the least, enviable. Rythme achieved double the market share of its big rival Rouge, owned by Bell, this summer.
