MUMBAI: Radio Mirchi has topped all radio stations with the largest daily listenership of 95.61 lakhs in the combined markets of Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, according to the recent findings of the Indian Listenership Track 2006 Wave 2, conducted by MRUC and ACNielsen ORG-MARG.In comparison to 2006 Wave 1 (for Mumbai), Radio Mirchi has not only retained its numero uno position but has widened the gap with its nearest competitor Radio City to 40 per cent.

In Delhi, Radio Mirchi maintained its 2:1 lead over the nearest competitor. In Kolkata, Radio Mirchi completely dominated the market - it had more listeners than all other radio stations put together. Kolkata was covered for the first time in the ILT and the city raked up almost 41 lakh daily listeners, informs an official release.

Radio Mirchi 98.3 FMListenership figures in lakhsMumbai26.29Delhi42.01Kolkata27.31Total, 95.61 lakhs daily listeners in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata

Radio City was the next station in terms of reach - with 18.93 lakh and 20.94 lakh daily listeners in Mumbai and Delhi respectively. Red FM has 16.58 lakh, 20.48 lakh and 7.64 lakh daily listeners in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata respectively.

The field work conducted for the research was done from mid September 2006 to end November 2006 also showed that Radio Listenership as determined by Yesterday Listeners has gone up in Mumbai by adding 4 lac listeners. Also, there is a marked transformation from casual listeners to regular listeners. On the other hand, Delhi has registered a marginal growth, adding only 65,000 listeners.

The Indian Listenership Track, a product of MRUC and ACNielsen ORG-MARG research, has been designed on the `Day After Recall` methodology, which provides Yesterday Listenership (YDL) data across all stations in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi.