According to Rajar 45.7m adults, or 89.2 per cent of the UK population, tuned in to their favourite radio station at least once a week in the third quarter of this year.
This compares with an all-time high under the current methodology (which dates back to 1999) of 46.3m listeners in the second quarter of this year.
Overall the reach of all BBC radio stations increased by 1.4 per cent in the third quarter to 45,721,000.
Radio 4 increased its reach to 10,218,000 (up 8.1 per cent year on year) and Radio Five Live increased 9.6 per cent to 6,390,000.
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All commercial radio was static year on year with a reach of 31,225,000 in the quarter (up 0.1 per cent).
Talksport rose seven per cent year on year to 2,474,000 listeners a week.
In London, talk station LBC 97.3 increased its weekly reach by 40.2 per cent to 907,000 and LBC News 1152 increased its reach to 378,000, up 9.6 per cent.
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This compared with BBC London 94.9 on 405,000 listeners for the quarter, down 13.6 per cent.
In the battle of the breakfast shows, BBC Radio Four’s Today programme increased its weekly reach in the quarter to 6,604,000 (compared with 6,110,000 in the same period last year). Radio Five saw a drop in its reach to 2,666,000, compared with 2,733,000.
Talksport also saw a breakfast time drop to 1,067,000 (down from 1,143,000 in the same period last year).
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