For at least 20 years, Royal Media Service’s (RMS) Radio Citizen has commanded and dominated the airwaves leaving other outlets struggling in the wake of its dust.
Radio Citizen, has been the favourite of many Kenyans and surveys over the years have always revealed that Kenyans have immense trust in it.
The stations share has always been growing steadily warding off any competition from other stations, be they national or regional.
Share is a percentage of the total listening time for radios and this, therefore, means that people stay longer and find a particular radio station more engaging. If the number is low, the radio station is likely not interesting.
And today, Radio Citizen, according to the latest survey, has lost a significant share to fast rising Radio47 which is about 2-years-old in the industry.
According to the latest Kenya Audience Tracker report for Quarter 1 of 2025 (Q1) by research firm IPSOS, Radio47’s share has grown to 7.5% behind Citizen Radio’s 17.3% nationally.
In quarter four of 2024, Radio47 share (percentage of listening time) was at 5.5% behind Citizen Radio’s 20.8%, Kameme Radio (7.5%), Radio Jambo (7.2%) and Ramogi FM (6.7) in that order.
These findings show that Radio Citizen dropped its share to 17.3% in the first four months of 2025 compared to the last four months in the same period of 2024.
Also, Kameme FM 6.9%, Radio Jambo 6.1% and Ramogi FM 6.1% experienced a drop in audience listening time (share) in the first four months of 2025.
It is only Radio47, owned by Cape Media Ltd and associated with Mount Kenya University Founder Prof Simon Gicharu, that has reported an impressive growth in its market share.
Kameme FM also showed some growth.
Radio47 grew from 2.5% to 2.7% as Kameme grew from 2.7% to 2.9% while on the other side, Radio Citizen dropped from 10.4% to 9.3, Radio Jambo 4.7% to 3.2% and Radio Maisha 2.7% to 2.4%.
IPSOS says that radio remains a dominant medium in rural areas, but urban listenership is significant, especially for stations like Radio47, which has a strong presence in Nairobi, Rift Valley and the Coast regions.
Since its establishment in 2023, Radio47 has been hiring top talents some from rival radio stations including Emmanuel Mwashumbe, Alex Mwakideu, Ali Hassan Kauleni, comedian and presenter Dr Ofweneke, Fred Arocho and gospel presenter Eva Mwalili among others.
By Newshub