Hearts beats Capital to the top slot

Heart 106.2 has overtaken Capital Radio as London's most listened-to commercial station.

New ratings figures revealed today show that Capital no longer dominates the market.

Londoners are tuning into 15.6 million hours of Heart per week - compared with 13.6 million hours of Capital shows. Heart now boasts a seven per cent market share to Capital's 6.1. It signals a massive 39 per cent boost for Heart on the last quarter.

Now Capital and Magic are vying for second and third place - with Magic 105.4FM only fractionally behind Capital at 13.4 million listening hours.

The figures come as a relief for Heart owner Chrysalis, which was forced to issue its third profit warning in five months this year after the station lost the No2 slot in London to Magic.

Chrysalis also axed long-running breakfast host Jono Coleman, recruiting-Jamie Theakston in a bid to boost the younger audience.

"It's a storming success for us and now Jamie is in prime position to take our ratings even higher for the next quarter," said a Heart spokesman.

The ratings will be a blow for Capital chiefs, who are in the last stages of a merger with rival GWR and had hoped a firm No1 spot in the radio rankings would boost share prices when they begin trading on Monday.

Capital retains its lead in terms of listener numbers, with 2.1 million per week to Heart's 1.86 million.

Capital's breakfast show host Johnny Vaughan has also added new listeners - up by more than 100,000 to 1.23 million, or an eight per cent market share.