Fix Radio advances as Britain’s fastest-growing broadcaster

Fix Radio has the fastest growing national radio station in the UK, registering an increase in listeners by nearly 250% since its national launch in May last year. The builders station had a weekly reach of 295,109 tradespeople between September 2022 and February 2023. This comes as the latest figures from RAJAR revealed that BBC Radio 2 lost a million listeners between April and June.

The growth of Fix Radio highlights the wider trend of the increasing audience share that commercial radio enjoys, with figures from RAJAR showing that commercial radio registered a record weekly reach and share of listening for a second consecutive quarter. There is a distinct shift away from the ‘big radio’ stations occurring, as every full time national BBC station is now in recession, as an abundance of listeners are moving to ‘lifestyle’ stations, such as Fix.

Combined commercial radio stations now boast a total audience of 39.2 million listeners per week over the last three months, 7.5 million more than the BBC. For many listeners, the tailored output from these stations have become more appealing than the one-size-fits-all approach of the big stations.

Fix’s potential weekly reach, where the figure takes into account that several tradespeople are typically within earshot of the radio while on site, was 422,844 tradespeople. Its average weekly listening hours also grew in the eight months between June 2022 and February 2023. Fans tuned into the station’s blend of banging tunes, banter and industry chat for an average of 22.9 hours per week. Its daily average listening also grew to 3.3 hours. This comes as audiences for BBC network radio shrunk by 4% in the same period, as Radio 4 lost 1.2 million listeners in a year after its flagship breakfast show registered, what’s believed to be its lowest audience since 1999.

Making radio for communities go national
After working on building sites six years ago, Founder, Louis Timpany, saw first-hand how builders relied on the radio during busy periods to keep energy and morale up, but became dismayed by the monotonous library of music on mainstream media outlets, along with spoken content often featuring unrelatable stories. As a result, since its inception in 2017, Fix Radio has centralised its business model around 2.2 million construction workers in the UK, providing a mixture of authentic trade voices, upbeat music and content pertinent to the issues that affect the day-to-day life of builders on site, ranging from the state of mental health in construction to the widespread impacts of tool theft.

The station’s schedule includes some of the biggest talent in the industry, including Facebook superstars, the Bald Builders; Clive Holland of the BBC and formerly Cowboy Trap; the country’s most famous plasterer, Chris Frediani from DIY SOS; plumbing influencer, Andy Cam; electrician turned YouTuber, Thomas Nagy; and carpenter, craftsman and social media influencer, Robin Clevett.

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