Radio 4 boosted by new listeners

The Today programme now has 6.6 million listeners

BBC Radio 4 has added more than 750,000 listeners in 12 months to achieve its biggest audience for 10 years, figures from industry body Rajar show.

It now attracts 10.22 million people every week - up from 9.45 million last year and 10 million last quarter.

The boost was helped by the Today programme, which has gained nearly half a million listeners.

Meanwhile, the battle of the breakfast shows saw Sir Terry Wogan increase his lead over Radio 1 rival Chris Moyles.

The figures cover the period from 29 June to 20 September.

Earlier this year, Sir Terry and Moyles were almost neck-and-neck.

But the latest figures show that almost 750,000 more listeners tuned in to Wake Up To Wogan on Radio 2, after figures for Moyles dropped.

Moyles attracted 7.04 million fans - slightly up on the same period last year but down from the 7.72 million tuning in last quarter.

Meanwhile, Sir Terry, who will be replaced in the job by Chris Evans later this year, attracted 7.76 million listeners.

'Loyal listeners'

The figures for Radio 4 are the highest for the station since new research methods were introduced in 1999.

Tim Davie, director of BBC Audio and Music, said: "Radio 4 goes from strength to strength. In offering radio of the highest quality, it is both delighting loyal listeners and attracting inquisitive new audiences.

"BBC Radio remains at the heart of millions of people's lives, with two-thirds of the UK population listening to our networks every week."

Commercial radio listening fell by 800,000 to 31.2 million, while Classic FM maintained its lead as the most popular commercial station with 5.4 million listeners.

Magic 105.4 was London's favourite station with 2 million tuning in each week.

Rajar's figures also showed that radio listening had dipped slightly since the second quarter of 2009, from 46.3 million to 45.7 million listeners.

This meant that 89.2% of the UK population aged 15 and over listened to the radio.